Task Force urges independent oversight of St. Louis jail

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A task force appointed to examine concerns about a St. Louis jail is urging the city to create an independent oversight board to help oversee the lockup.

Task force leaders shared the group’s findings with Mayor Lyda Krewson on Friday.

Its chairman, the Rev. Darryl Gray, called the creation of an oversight board an “urgent priority.”

Inmate frustration at the downtown City Justice Center boiled over in the predawn hours of Feb. 6, when 117 inmates got out of their cells, smashed windows, set fires and tossed chairs and other items through the broken glass onto the street four stories below.

It was the third violent uprising since December.