ST. LOUIS — The city’s new jail chief’s first priorities include learning from staff and reviewing the jail’s use-of-force policy.
Nate Hayward, formerly a deputy director at St. Louis County’s jail, is taking on one of City Hall’s toughest assignments.
Since 2020, the downtown jail has faced rioting, hostage-taking and 20 detainee deaths, which officials largely attribute to medical issues, drug overdoses and suicides. Advocates have complained of poor health care services and excessive use of pepper spray. The number of correctional officers on staff has plummeted while the jail population has grown.
Hayward is hopeful the city can mount a turnaround like St. Louis County did after a spate of deaths in 2019, he said in an interview Wednesday.
In the county, new directors boosted hiring, increased staff pay and expanded detainee services under stepped-up oversight from a revived citizen advisory board. From 2020-24, the county jail recorded about one-third as many deaths as the city jail despite housing more people.
“Hopefully we can change it that way,” Hayward said.
Hayward’s former boss in the county, Doug Burris, came to the city jail earlier this year with plans for dozens of changes, and notched some initial improvements before leaving last month. Hiring inched up. Programs were revived, providing detainees with more books to read and training needed to get jobs after release.
But in exit interviews in August, he acknowledged ongoing challenges with staffing, use of force and deaths, including the case of Samuel Hayes Jr., who died in July while strapped to a restraint chair.
Hayward said he will start his work by talking to staff to gather feedback on what needs to be done next, and by reviewing policies with the jail’s new training coordinator — including the use-of-force policy. He said he was not familiar with complaints of guards overusing pepper spray to punish detainees and “send a message.”
“But that’s something that I’m going to be looking at,” he said, “That’s something that we’re going to make sure that we’re doing the correct way.”
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Austin Huguelet | Post-Dispatch
St. Louis City Hall reporter
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