Messenger: The math adds up, says head public defender in St. Louis – close the Workhouse
By Tony Messenger
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Updated
Mary Fox, head of the public defender's office in St. Louis, explains her belief that the city should shut down the controversial Workhouse at a panel discussion at the Deaconess Foundation on March 7. Also on the panel were Blake Strode (not pictured) of ArchCity Defenders, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, left, and Mike Milton of The Bail Project. Post-Dispatch photo by Tony Messenger.
When Mary Fox took over the public defender’s office in St. Louis in 2007 there were about 2,000 defendants incarcerated who hadn’t been convicted of the alleged crimes that put them behind bars. Then, as now, the bulk of the people in jail in the city were there on pretrial release, most of them poor people, many black, who could not afford the bail set by a judge.
Nearly three decades ago, Judge Cahill identified problems in St. Louis that are remarkably similar to today.
Mary Fox, head of the public defender's office in St. Louis, explains her belief that the city should shut down the controversial Workhouse at a panel discussion at the Deaconess Foundation on March 7. Also on the panel were Blake Strode (not pictured) of ArchCity Defenders, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, left, and Mike Milton of The Bail Project. Post-Dispatch photo by Tony Messenger.
