ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis City Justice Center is not taking new inmates. FOX 2 has learned that prisoner processing is now closed. The order came down over the weekend, despite the fact that the jail is not full.

The CJC can hold about 860 inmates. As of Monday, city records show the facility was well under 100 inmates below capacity, with 722 inmates last reported inside.

After learning of the order to close prisoner processing from internal city emails, the Department of Public Safety told FOX 2 that it’s in response to the July 24 fight involving four inmates sent to the hospital.

“We had detainees fighting because they were from different factions, and they were put in the same area,” Charles Coyle, Department of Public Safety director, said.

Coyle says the same gang territory violence on St. Louis streets is finding its way into the jails and jail staff is trying to better determine where a new inmate stands.

“If they’re not truthful with us about what side they’re running with—we don’t know—so we can make a mistake and have them on a side where they shouldn’t be on, and then things happen,” he said.

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The jail is asking police to bring people arrested to the SLMPD’s South Patrol on Sublette, where there are about eight holding cells—enough for about 24 inmates.

We watched three prisoner transport vans go in and out of South Patrol during a two-hour period on Monday.

Director Coyle emphasized that they will not be releasing people who need to be locked up.

“We anticipate this getting wrapped up sooner than later, once we have identified where – it doesn’t do us any good to take new detainees if we don’t know where to put them,” Coyle said.

A defense attorney, who did not want to be identified after just meeting with his client, said he’s noticed an urgent staffing issue.

“It’s obvious that the jail staff is overwhelmed, and the city needs to engage in some sort of recruiting drive,” he said.

Director Coyle agreed.

“We just hired eight people. They’re in training today,” he said.

The CJC has made national news in recent years with violence, including a corrections officer taken hostage in August 2023 and a jail riot that people could see from the outside of the jail in April 2021.

The Department of Public Safety says this latest move, closing prisoner processing temporarily, is an attempt to prevent the next possible crisis.

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