The St. Charles County jail has expanded by adding more detainee beds and space for health services to the third floor.
Robin Edwards, interim director of corrections at the St. Charles County Justice Center, said Monday that the upgrades conclude Phase II of a $50 million renovation that began in March 2024.
“Most of these are going to be single-cell housing, and these units will be for our individuals who are on suicide watch,” Edwards said as she pointed.
“These individuals that are housed here, they severely need the help that we are now able to offer them with bigger housing units and more space. We will have different opportunities for different programs that will get these individuals involved, so that they’re more successful when they get back out to the community.”
The facility features some double-bunk cells, as well as showers, she said.
Additions also include room for more privileges like watching TV and playing games in dayrooms in both male and female units.
Lacretia Wimbley
/
St. Louis Public Radio
Robin Edwards, interim director of corrections at the St. Charles County Justice Center, speaks to media on the third floor of the newly renovated St. Charles County Justice Center on Monday. Renovations were part of a $50 million project that began in March 2024.
The number of beds at the jail has now increased from 528 to more than 570.
Edwards said expanding the units allows space for treatment programs to facilitate “warm handoffs” between detainees and community support after they’re released from custody.
She said U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medication combined with behavioral health therapy will help reduce the likelihood that detainees will return to jail after release.
“A lot of times they’re not able to get the help that they need. They don’t have any support out in the community, and this is a great way to get it started,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the jail also distributes Narcan to detainees when they’re released — a drug that can save someone’s life during an overdose.
Kitchen upgrades were completed in Phase I of the project. Those changes included the renovation of a housing unit on the fifth floor, jail officials said.
The latest phase of renovations, they said, focused mainly on the third floor of the building. A former kitchen and storage space has been transformed into an addiction and mental health unit, which will now provide counseling and treatment space for roughly 85% of detainees who suffer from addiction or mental illness.
The renovated space also “increased the efficiency of correctional officer workspace,” according to jail officials.
St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann said Monday that the facility was outdated.
“The jail we’re in right now is 35 years old,” Ehlmann said. “I remember when it was first built, and it was a tremendous improvement on what we had before then, but it’s in need of work. I’m just very happy that we didn’t have to go to the people and ask for a tax increase to do this.”
He noted that Phase I and II of the project were covered by over $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and $15 million in bond funds from a capital improvement sales tax, as well as litigation settlement funds from the county’s participation in a national case filed in 2018 against opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies.
The St. Charles County regional medical examiner’s office reported more than 400 opiate-related deaths in St. Charles County from 2017 to 2020. Ehlmann previously said the epidemic increased the county jail population and subsequently cost taxpayers millions.
“We will have the funds here to continue not only to staff this, but to make sure that it’s a facility that really can make a difference,” Ehlmann said.
Jail leaders said much of Phase II of the project will be complete by the end of this month. Phase III will begin in late summer and will be largely funded by the county’s opioid litigation settlement, county officials said.
Lacretia Wimbley
/
St. Louis Public Radio
A chess and checkers table sits in the newly renovated men’s unit at the St. Charles County Justice Center on Monday. Renovations were part of a $50 million project that began in March 2024.