Community Corner
St. Louis County Jail Advisory Board Renews Call For Review
It was the board's third vote since Aug. 28 formally requesting such a review in the wake of misconduct allegations.
January 23, 2021
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Justice Services Advisory Board voted unanimously Friday to urge County Executive Sam Page to seek bids from groups that could conduct the review.
It was the board’s third vote since Aug. 28 formally requesting such a review in the wake of misconduct allegations against former jail director Raul Banasco, an experienced administrator Page hired in November 2019 to reform the facility after a spate of jail deaths.
“It appears there needs to be a paper trail,” said the Rev. Phillip Duvall, a board member, “because there has been a lot of discussion on this with a lot of dates and then we’ve seen nothing.” The move coincided with the release of a 14-page report summarizing an internal county survey of jail personnel that identified a range of complaints about Banasco’s tenure, including that he bullied employees. Banasco denied the findings of the report, and said he was not interviewed by the consultants. “People just want to make me the bad guy in all this,” he said. Banasco also said he resigned in August to take care of a critically ill family member.
