Thread by @BigElad

I stood with @CLOSEWorkhouse yesterday. Here's one reason why.

When I left the Attorney General's Office, I was asked to volunteer as a Special Public Defender for the state. Our Public Defender System has far too many cases.

stlamerican.com/news/local_new…

1/10

I represented an 18-year-old. She was in jail for a crime she did not commit, waiting for a trial because she couldn't afford to pay her bond.

2/10

There was a fight between some kids in the Loop in St. Louis. She saw what happened and ran away. The next day, police saw her and asked her to come in and answer questions. She did.

3/10

She told police everything she knew. She didn't have an attorney. And at the end of the interview, she was arrested, charged with a felony, and put in the Workhouse. She spent the next 7 months of her life behind bars.

4/10

Her incarceration traumatized her. Bugs and rodents infested the facility. Mold was visibly on the walls. Toilets flooded, the place was unsanitary, and she only saw an attorney one time.

I was the second time.

5/10

I told her she had a strong case, that every eye witness agreed with her story, that her trial was in just a couple of weeks, that I didn't know why she was still in jail, and that I was going to see if I could get her out even sooner.

6/10

She told me, "You seem really nice, but I don't trust the system. I need you to cop to whatever they want. I can't spend another day in here."

It didn't matter that she was innocent. What mattered was that she had no money.

7/10

I was accepted as her attorney by the court while I was visiting her in that jail cell, and, when I came out, I found out that the prosecutor had dropped the charges against her 2 weeks ago. She was now sitting there for no reason, a violation of her civil rights.

8/10

I got her out. She asked me to fight for her again. We took the city to court.

The Workhouse is a product of a broken system, one that doesn't value anyone in it, not the accused, not the wronged, not those who staff it.

stlamerican.com/news/local_new…

9/10

It's a terrible waste of taxpayer money, millions of dollars of which could be used to support our community instead of tear it down.

It's beyond time to close it. And it's beyond time for a justice system that actually works for Missourians.

10/10