Circuit attorney’s office should investigate medical neglect at city jail, St. Louis NAACP says 59%
By Lacretia Wimbley0% Andrea Y. Henderson0%
4/14/2026, 9:24:33 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Anecdotal, and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 26.7% saturation with 250 hits. Analysis detected 1,741 faulty-reasoning hits from 938 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 55.5% and a BS Rank of 59% (8,992 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 58.90% of the article peer group.
The St.
Louis City NAACP is calling on Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore to investigate medical neglect at the St.
Louis City Justice Center after at least 22 people have died in custody there since 2020.
NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt said the civil rights organization has interviewed about 15 people, including medical officials, who say the city jail typically neglects to send detainees’ medical records to hospitals during medical emergencies.
Having medical records readily available could have saved many detainees' lives, Pruitt said Tuesday at a press conference.
“Without having any of that patient medical background, they [doctors] don't have anything that would make them be more expedient and more diligent at attacking the problem from a medical professional standpoint,” he said.
“They are starting from scratch.”
Pruitt said no doctor can properly care for a patient in crisis without the records, and that is why he believes the deaths over the years need to be investigated by the circuit attorney’s office as homicides.
“If by neglect, someone dies, it's a homicide in the state of Missouri; the statutes are clear,” he said.
“The family members of those individuals who have died at the Justice Center deserve to have their loved ones' death[s] looked at as a homicide.”
The St.
Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office confirmed in a statement Tuesday evening that they received the NAACP’s letter requesting a “formal investigation into whether acts or omissions by medical staff and other responsible personnel at the St.
Louis City Justice Center contributed to the deaths of detainees in city custody.”
Circuit Attorney officials said they haven’t received any applications for warrants from the St.
Louis Metropolitan Police Department regarding any of the in-custody deaths at the city jail.
The department’s Force Investigation Unit is typically tasked with investigating jail deaths.
“Our office will review the NAACP’s request and determine whether the letter and supporting memoranda are sufficient to justify an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the CJC inmate deaths,” the Circuit Attorney's Office said.
Recent jail deaths
Most recently, family members mourned Dametria McDile, who died on Jan. 31 while in custody of the jail.
Jail officials said McDile, 32, suffered from a medical emergency.
Last year, three people died in custody at the troubled jail.
Samuel Hayes Jr., 31, died in July after he was placed in a restraint chair.
James Earl Johnson, 54, died in November, and Derek Dean, 48, died last March.
Both Johnson and Dean died due to medical emergencies.
Two months after Hayes’ death, his mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit, saying that her son did not resist arrest when he was placed in a restraint chair and that he fell to the floor multiple times, based on security camera footage.
The lawsuit was filed against corrections staff, nurses, the city and a corrections-focused health care provider.
The suit also claims that Hayes was left convulsing for about 20 minutes and that nurses and other officers failed to follow city policies regarding the use of restraint chairs by neglecting to regularly check on him.
Hayes’ cause of death is still pending as the lawsuit is ongoing.
At least 11 of the 22 detainee deaths that have occurred since 2020 were due to some sort of medical emergency or health condition, according to public safety, police and medical examiner records.
Four deaths were ruled suicides by the city medical examiner, and police reported another as a potential suicide death.
The medical examiner’s office declared four deaths were accidents due to drug overdoses, and one death was ruled a homicide since the person died of a gunshot wound, which the person had before being detained.
The jail has been riddled with internal problems and controversy for years as advocates have called for better conditions due to frequent 23-hour lockdowns, unclean conditions and neglect.
In November, 23-year-old Damorieon Simms was charged in an assault that left corrections officer Jerome Dunning unconscious.
That occurred a day after detainee James Earl Johnson died while in custody.
The frequent and at times violent issues that the city jail has encountered over the years also pushed the NAACP St.
Louis chapter to ask the U.S.
Justice Department to thoroughly examine systemic issues that might have led to the deaths or medical emergencies.
What jail leaders have to say
In an interview with St.
Louis Public Radio in February, Deputy Commissioner Tammy Ross said detainees are typically given a health evaluation when they first come into the jail.
From there, the individuals provide their known medical history, which includes their list of medications, doctors and last known visits.
“We're hoping, within the first 14 days, they can have a history of physical done, some kind of assessment done by the doctor, by the (jail’s medical) provider,” Ross said.
It wasn't immediately made clear by city jail officials on Tuesday whether or not they share detainee medical records with hospitals during visits.
Pruitt said the NAACP found through its investigation that some detainees are not receiving proper medical care when they return from the hospital, or are not being provided proper meals.
Going into custody at the city’s jail should not ever equal a death sentence, Pruitt said.
“We want the circuit attorney to approach deaths at CJC just like we will approach any other crime downtown,” he said.
“The jail is downtown, so [with] the same emphasis, the same diligence, we want it looked at, and we want it looked at from a criminal liability standpoint.”
This story has been updated with comments from the St.
Louis Circuit Attorney's Office.
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