St. Louis County Jail

St. Louis County Justice Center
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Location	Clayton, MO, United States
Nearest city	Saint Louis
Coordinates	38°38′56.1618″N 90°20′18.4632″W / 38.648933833°N 90.338462000°W / 38.648933833; -90.338462000Coordinates: 38°38′56.1618″N 90°20′18.4632″W / 38.648933833°N 90.338462000°W / 38.648933833; -90.338462000
Established	1998
Governing body	St. Louis County Department of Justice Services

The St. Louis County Jail is located inside the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, Missouri at 100 South Central Avenue, about eight miles (13 km) from downtown St. Louis. The holding capacity of the facility is 1,400 male and female inmates. The St. Louis County Jail is a direct-supervision facility that detains adults and juveniles being tried as adults who are awaiting trial or serving county sentences and is the only jail in Missouri that holds an accreditation known as the ALDF from the American Correctional Association (ACA). Opened in March 1998, the center replaced both the jail in the 1949 St. Louis County Courthouse building and the Adult Correctional Building in Chesterfield, Missouri. The center was rededicated the “Buzz Westfall Justice Center” in 2004.

St. Louis City and St. Louis County separated in 1876 and left the county at its current size of 524 square miles (1,360 km²). After Clayton, Missouri was chosen as the permanent county seat, a courthouse and jail were built in December 1878. By 1945, a bond issue allowed for the construction of a new courthouse and jail in Clayton facing Forsyth Boulevard that was completed in 1949.

A new state law allowed for jail facilities to be located outside of the county seat of Clayton. Because land costs in Clayton were considered prohibitive, the new Adult Correctional Institution was built in 1969 in Gumbo, a historical community which was located in present-day Chesterfield, Missouri approximately 15 miles (24 km) to the west.

Continued jail overcrowding and deterioration of the remaining jail facilities in Chesterfield created pressure for new correctional facilities. In choosing a site for new facilities the costs and difficulties of continually transporting prisoners between jail facilities in far west County and court facilities in Clayton weighed in favor of a Clayton site for a new jail and expanded court facilities. The new Justice Center (which includes the St. Louis County Jail) opened in 1998 and is connected to the Courts Building by a secure skywalk, replacing both the jail in the 1949 Courthouse building and the Adult Correctional Building in Chesterfield. The justice center was rededicated the “Buzz Westfall Justice Center” in 2004. George “Buzz” Westfall was the St. Louis County Executive from 1990 to October 2003 when he died after developing a staph infection.

The jail has a total of 960 cells, with a capacity for 1,400 inmates, in overcrowded conditions. The Justice Center has nine levels, though some of those floors serve the jail administration, Prosecutors office, Public Defenders office, County Police Fingerprint Unit, Fugitive section and some Public Works offices. Each floor that houses inmates has a capacity of 301 inmates. Furthermore, each floor of the jail is divided into four units with 48 cells in each unit.