On a Tuesday afternoon in March, as the demolition of St. Louis’ Workhouse began, Blake Strode and Inez Bordeaux watched an excavator tear into the facility's walls and roof. They had spent eight years waiting for this moment. For them, it was a scene of celebration.
But demolition wasn’t the final development in the yearslong effort to close the infamous jail. One month later, on May 6, the City of St. Louis announced that it reached a $4 million settlement in a lawsuit over the jail’s alleged abuses. Pending approval by a federal judge, the settlement could affect as many as 16,000 former detainees.
The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by civil rights law firm ArchCity Defenders.
“We were hearing such consistent stories about what was happening inside of the jail that we determined that there were grounds for constitutional civil rights claims,” said Strode, who became ArchCity’s executive director in 2017.
He continued: “You layer on top of that the stories that have existed in St Louis for decades about horrible, inhumane conditions and suffering inside of the jail. [Those stories] raised the stakes around identifying the Workhouse as a site of suffering.”
As a native of St. Louis, Bordeaux had heard the same stories about the Workhouse. In 2016, after facing a criminal charge for overdrawing unemployment benefits, she spent 30 days in its dank, cold cells. In the years after her release (and the dismissal of the criminal case against her), she rose as an activist and organizer in the Close the Workhouse campaign.
“In those 30 days that I spent at the Workhouse, I got to see that everything that we had heard about the workhouse was absolutely true,” said Bordeaux, now ArchCity’s deputy director of community collaborations. “It wasn't being sensationalized. The facility is infested with rats and roaches. It does have black mold growing on the walls. The sewage does back-up into the places where people are being detained.”
On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, Bordeaux and Strode reflected on the yearslong efforts around the Workhouse that developed since 2017, when a heat wave drove public attention to the jail’s lack of air-conditioning and inspired protests against its inhumane conditions. Strode also discussed the progress of the lawsuit and shared guidance for former detainees who are eligible for a piece of that settlement.
To hear the full interview with Blake Strode and Inez Bordeaux, including their reflections on the past, present and future of the Workhouse, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
