The Detention Center
Not scored. The county's own website was not reachable in the session that produced this record, so its disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.
- Operated bySt. Louis County Department of Justice Services
- Who runs itJonel Coleman — Acting Director, St. Louis County Department of Justice Services
- Answers tothe St. Louis County Department of Justice Services. The county has had no elected sheriff since 1955
- Why this is differentThe elected county sheriff does not run this jail.
- Jail address100 South Central Avenue, Clayton, MO
- OpenedMarch 1998
- Stated capacity1,232, as reported by St. Louis Public Radio in April 2026; an older encyclopedia entry gives 1,400
- Population1,266 on 5 April 2026, 34 over stated capacity, of whom 1,090 were awaiting trial, as reported by St. Louis Public Radio
- StaffingA shortage of 80 officers reported in April 2026; 27% of correctional officer positions vacant reported in October 2025
- BudgetProposed 2026 budget of $41.3 million, up 2% from $40.4 million, presented to the County Council Budget Committee on 29 October 2025, as reported by St. Louis Public Radio
- Capital needsDirector's five-year list reported in October 2025 included $16 million for flush controls and $12.5 million for sprinkler modifications
- What was triedstlouiscountymo.gov Justice Services, bonds, visiting information, inmate phone usage, inmate cash accounts, resident handbook and county executive bail-practices news pages - all returned 403 to every automated fetch
Source: St. Louis Public Radio, 13 April 2026 · checked 2026-09-18
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1998 (opened March 1998)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds1,232 stated capacity as reported in April 2026 (older sources give 1,400)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff — none elected
- No sheriffSt. Louis County elects no sheriff. A 1955 voter referendum amended the county charter to end the elected sheriff's law-enforcement role; the appointed St. Louis County Police Department took over law enforcement, and the county's Department of Justice Services runs the jail.
- Runs the jailNo - there is no elected sheriff. The county jail is run by the St. Louis County Department of Justice Services
- How the office is filledNot elected. In 1955 voters amended the St. Louis County Charter to restrict the duties of the Sheriff's Office and eliminate the position of elected sheriff
- Who does law enforcementThe appointed, county-wide St. Louis County Police Department, established 1 July 1955, which took over all law enforcement services
- What remains of the sheriffA civilian St. Louis County Sheriff's Office handling court bailiff duties and service of civil process
- 2026 amendmentA 2026 statewide constitutional amendment requiring elected county sheriffs specifically carved out St. Louis County, the City of St. Louis and St. Charles County
- Source of the nameName from the Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies list kept by the Missouri Department of Public Safety (POST program), a state list, not a county page; checked 18 September 2026
- Office (state list)St Louis County Sheriffs Office, 7900 Carondelet Ave, Clayton, MO 63105; phone (314) 615-4724
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies list (Missouri Department of Public Safety, POST program; shown on the Attorney General's Police and Sheriffs Contacts page) - statewide list, checked 18 September 2026 · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Missouri's 1940 Nonpartisan Court Plan covers the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals statewide, and at circuit level it applies in only six jurisdictions - Clay, Greene, Jackson, Platte, St. Louis County and St. Louis City. This jurisdiction is one of the six, so its circuit and associate circuit judges are appointed by the governor from a three-name panel sent by a nonpartisan judicial commission and then stand in yes/no retention elections. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. St. Louis County is served by the 21st Judicial Circuit, whose official court site gives its address as 105 South Central Avenue, Clayton. No individual judge's name was confirmed from a page that could be opened.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The Department of Justice Services runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations belong to the county's Department of Justice Services. St. Louis County has elected no sheriff since 1955.
- The boardThe County Council
Notes on the record
- St. Louis County, seat Clayton, is not the City of St. Louis; the two have been separate since 1876-77. It is one of three Missouri exceptions to the sheriff-as-jailer rule: voters eliminated the elected sheriff in 1955, law enforcement passed to the appointed St. Louis County Police Department, and the jail is run by the civilian Department of Justice Services.
- UNEXAMINED: the county's own domain, stlouiscountymo.gov, returned 403 to every automated fetch - the Justice Services home page and its bonds, visiting, phone, cash-account and handbook pages, and a county executive news release on bail and bond practices. A scoped search showed the county does maintain pages on bonds, visiting, inmate phone use and inmate cash accounts, and an adopted-budget book, but none could be read. audit.checks is therefore left empty rather than scored; this county has not been shown to publish nothing.
- The jail administrator, population, capacity, staffing and budget figures come from St. Louis Public Radio reporting (13 April 2026 and 30 October 2025), not from a county publication, and the acting director's title may have changed since April 2026. They do not count toward any transparency check.
- Search results included stlouiscountycourt.org, which carries a 'jail roster' page naming a former director; that site states it is privately owned and not operated by any government agency. It is not cited and its director name is not used.
- St. Louis County's jail has been described as the only Missouri jail holding ACA adult local detention facility accreditation; that claim comes from an encyclopedia entry, not a county page, and is not scored. ACA accreditation is a private, voluntary process, not a state inspection.
- No Missouri state agency inspects county jails. The Department of Corrections operates and inspects state prisons under RSMo chapter 217; that authority does not reach chapter 221 county and city jails. The Missouri Sheriffs' Association publishes non-binding jail guidance and runs jail-administrator training, but it is a private association of sheriffs, not a regulator. The only statutory mechanisms are local and lay: a grand jury visit to the jail under RSMo 221.300, and a county board of visitors under RSMo 221.320-221.350, which RSMo 221.350 requires to report yearly to the county.
- Missouri has no death-in-custody reporting law and no public dataset; RSMo 58.451(1)(5) requires only notice to the coroner.
- St. Louis County is a charter county. It has no County Commission; it is governed by an elected County Executive and a County Council. The county's own site, stlouiscountymo.gov, refused every automated fetch, so no County Executive or Council member's name was confirmed and none is recorded here. St. Louis Public Radio reported that the Department of Justice Services presented its proposed 2026 budget to the County Council Budget Committee on 29 October 2025.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in St. Louis County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
St. Louis County elects no sheriff. The officials who pay for this jail are elected.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered