Workers disciplined after latest mistaken release from city jai

ST. LOUIS -- Two workers at the city's jail were placed on unpaid leave after the latest mistaken release of a prisoner further angered the mayor, who considers the mix-ups "a source of extreme frustration," an aide said Friday.

"I'd describe the mayor's reaction as extremely angry," Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, said one day after the medium-security lockup wrongly released a man instead of that prisoner's father.

"We have worked until we're blue in the face to put in place the right procedures, and they're not being followed," Rainford said. "If they can't fix it, we'll start looking at privatization" of the jail known as the city's workhouse.

Officials said Jerome Jones Jr., 34, was released Thursday afternoon from the jail, where he was being held on kidnapping and other charges. Workers later learned that Jones' father, Jerome Jones Sr., 52, was the one who should have been freed after he reportedly paid back child support.

The younger Jones was taken back into custody hours later after the Jones family learned of the mistake, and he agreed to be returned.

A lieutenant and guard at the jail have been placed on unpaid leave, Rainford said.

The mix-up happened less than two weeks after Gene Stubblefield -- the former superintendent of a state prison in the St. Louis suburb of Pacific -- took over the jail's daily operations, Rainford said.

"He's got experience, and I'm told he's a no-nonsense guy," Rainford said of Stubblefield. "Maybe he'll be able to turn this around."

Deadline set

The city has given Stubblefield 60 days to draft a plan to ensure that the jail's protocols are followed, Rainford said. Perhaps before that deadline, city police may begin making unannounced inspections of the jail's operations.

"One of these days they're going to get it right," Rainford said. "This is not going to go on."

Thursday's mix-up was the latest problem this year at the jail, from which five prisoners escaped unnoticed until an off-duty jail cook recognized them on the street and called in. In that case, a motion detector on the fence the inmates climbed had failed, guard towers were unmanned and police weren't called to help for possibly as long as 75 minutes.

The five were eventually recaptured.