For many years, the “Workhouse” jail in St. Louis, Missouri, subjected people to horrific conditions. After a long campaign, the city finally closed the facility in 2022. Now, some of the people who were held there are set to receive reparations for their ordeals. A pending legal settlement would award financial compensation to people who were incarcerated after November 13, 2012.
On May 6, ArchCity Defenders—a legal advocacy organization that launched a class action lawsuit in 2017—announced that the city had agreed to reach a settlement with at least 16,000 people who were detained in the Workhouse from 2012-2022. If a court approves the deal, the city will pay out a total of $4 million, divided among eligible recipients. Anyone who was held at the jail for at least five days could file a claim, and money would be allocated according to the length of a person’s incarceration.
“It’s nice to be compensated, but I can’t get back any of the time that I was dealing with being locked up in that unsuitable environment.”
“I am happy that the lawsuit is finally over, and I am happy that people are not going to be held in that place,” said Jasmine Borden, a plaintiff and class representative, in a statement shared with Filter. “It was a horrible place. They treat dogs at the shelter better than they treated us. It’s nice to be compensated with the settlement, but I can’t get back any of the time that I was dealing with being locked up and being away from my kids in that unsuitable environment.”
Blake Strode, the executive director of ArchCity Defenders, noted that all the terms of the settlement are still subject to court approval. But he told Filter that if the court grants it, which may happen within a month, a process will begin for “class notice”—meaning people eligible for payouts will be informed and encouraged to apply. It would then take about four months for the payments to begin.
The Medium Security Institution in St. Louis, known as the “Workhouse,” was built in 1966. The jail was notorious. It was freezing cold in winter and blazing hot in summer, with no climate control. It was infested with mold, rats and roaches. And it was rife with violence, encouraged by guards.
Formerly incarcerated people and legal advocates planned a strategy to close it. Besides the ArchCity Defenders lawsuit, which alleged multiple consitutional violations, the “Close the Workhouse” campaign, launched by community members in 2018, pressured the city’s elected officials.
In 2020, the St. Louis Board of Alders voted unanimously to shut the jail, but then-Mayor Lyda Krewson (D) kept it open. Tishaura Jones (D), who was then the city treasurer, ran for mayor on a promise to close the Workhouse, and was elected in 2021. Jones did not act immediately to close the jail, and actually transferred some people back into it. It took until June 2022 for the city to remove the last people from the Workhouse, effectively ending its operations.
As the Workhouse closed, hundreds of people were forced into the CJC, which has become a “powder keg.” A separate lawsuit concerning the CJC is currently being litigated.
Jones has now been ousted as mayor by Clara Spencer (D). During the campaign, Spencer stuck with a commitment to close the jail, but focused attention on the city’s remaining jail, the City Justice Center (CJC). Spencer criticized the Jones administration’s handling of poor conditions and deaths at the CJC, saying the city had “clearly not prepared” to make it the sole detention facility, and that “the CJC has shown to be even worse.”
According to a St. Louis Public Radio report, at least 18 people have died at the CJC since 2020. As the Workhouse closed, hundreds of people were forced into the CJC, which has become a chaotic “powder keg,” according to the Marshall Project—with “multiple riots,” and “excessive force, chemical agents and water shut-offs” inflicted by correctional staff. Staffing has dropped at the facility as its population has swelled.
ArchCity Defenders, along with other legal organizations, has a separate lawsuit concerning the CJC, which is currently being litigated.
But ArchCity Defenders has remained firm throughout that the Workhouse must still be shut down and not re-opened. In March, in one of her last acts in office, former Mayor Jones ordered the demolition of the Workhouse, which began promptly.
“The city started demolition on the jail, and a significant amount has been complete,” Strode told Filter. “We initially reached this settlement back in February, but one of the terms was that the Workhouse could not be used to detain people ever again. That term was really meaningful to our clients who suffered inside the jail.”
Current Mayor Spencer has so far not elaborated on the pending settlement, saying at a May 6 press conference, “I can’t really speak to those decisions before I was sworn into office.” She has also expressed concern about the $2.2 million demolition contract, which was paid from the city’s building repair fund. The site has been plagued by lead and asbestos contamination, which has delayed the demolition process.
“The progress we made by closing the Workhouse is something to double down on. We’ve shown you can decarcerate in St. Louis and have public safety outcomes that are positive.”
Strode expressed his hope that the Workhouse closure could serve as a model and an inspiration to overhaul approaches to justice and public safety. Contrary to critics’ warnings, he noted, the sky did not fall after the closure. St. Louis saw an 11-year low in homicides in 2024, and the first two months of 2025 continued the trend.
But despite everything, the city’s jail population has recently risen—from a historic low of 550 people in 2022 to 763 people now.
“What’s really concerning is the jail population has continued to increase,” Strode said. “One of the big stories in St. Louis over the past eight years is we’ve seen a really massive reduction in the overall city jail population. But more concerning over the past couple years, that has started to tick back up. I’m hoping in this moment, we can realize as a city that the progress we made by closing the Workhouse is something to protect and double down on. We’ve shown you can decarcerate in St. Louis and also have public safety outcomes that are positive.”
Photograph (cropped) via Close the Workhouse
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