Missouri Department of Corrections Archives

Coronavirus outbreak at southeast Missouri prison

June 19, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Twenty-one people at the state prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre have tested positive for the coronavirus. State Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann says 16 inmates and 5 employees – all asymptomatic – have tested positive for COVID-19.

Coronavirus outbreak at southeast Missouri prison

The findings are part of facility-wide coronavirus testing at the 2,600-bed at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center.

Mass testing, or sentinel testing, of inmates and employees at all Missouri prisons — regardless of symptoms or the presence of known cases — began May 26.

Next week, the department is doing testing at three places – a treatment center and a maximum-security prison in mid-Missouri’s Fulton and the minimum-security prison in northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph.

Three Missouri prisons will reopen to visitors next week with some restrictions. Starting next Thursday, Algoa Correctional Center in central Missouri’s Jefferson City, South Central Correctional Center in Licking and Chillicothe Correctional Center in northwest Missouri will begin allowing visitors again.

Three Missouri prisons to reopen to visitors next week – with some restrictions

June 19, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Starting next Thursday, Algoa Correctional Center in central Missouri’s Jefferson City, South Central Correctional Center in Licking and Chillicothe Correctional Center in northwest Missouri will begin allowing visitors again. Since the spread of the coronavirus, Missouri’s state prisons have been closed to families, friends and acquaintances of inmates.

Three Missouri prisons to reopen to visitors next week – with some restrictions

Restrictions
•All visitors must call the facility to schedule an appointment. Contact information is available here.
•Visiting will be increased to four days per week, Thursday through Sunday. However, the visiting rooms will be open at only 30% capacity, with 2-hour slots, with 2 visitors per offender.
• All visitors must pass COVID-19 screening with a temperature check prior to entering the check-in area; anyone who does not pass the screening will not be allowed to enter
• Any visitor exhibiting signs of illness may be turned away
• Maximum of 2 visitors per offender
• Maximum of 2 visits per month
• Visits restricted to 2 hours in length with 45-minute break between visits to sanitize all surfaces and to process new visitors
• No minors under the age of 18
• Any visitor or offender with a serious underlying medical condition should refrain from visiting
• All visitors, staff and offenders will be required to wear a face cover or mask while in the visiting area; visitors must bring their own face covers
• Face covers will be inspected/searched for contraband and must be lowered when entering/exiting for identification purposes
• No contact between visitor and offender; no entrance/exit embrace or kiss; no contact at the table
• Visitors may use beverage vending machines only. No drink sharing is allowed. One person at a time at the vending machine, which will be cleaned after each use.
• No food vending, microwaves, water fountains or sink areas may be used
• No offender on quarantine status will be allowed to visit
• No games may be checked out
• Children’s areas remain closed
• No pictures
• Visiting rooms will be at 30% capacity, and each offender’s visitor(s) will be spaced apart from other visitors

Dates for resuming visiting at other prisons have not yet been set.

The easing of visitation restrictions at the three prisons come as 21 people at the state prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre have tested positive for the coronavirus. Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann says 16 inmates and 5 employees – all asymptomatic – have tested positive.

Missouri governor announces $210 million in additional budget restrictions

June 2, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of 300,000 jobs between March and April, Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) has announced an additional $210 million in budget withholds, including $131 million for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Missouri Governor Mike Parson announces $210 million in additional budget restrictions during a Statehouse media briefing on June 1, 2020 (photo courtesy of Governor Parson’s Flickr page)

The governor made the announcement during a media briefing on Monday afternoon at the Statehouse in Jefferson City.

Governor Parson says Missouri’s unemployment rate increased from 3.9 to 9.7 percent in April. He notes that the loss of 300,000 jobs is a decrease of more than ten percent.

“It goes without saying that COVID-19 has had severe impacts on our anticipated economic growth,” Parson says. “This is truly unlike anything we have ever experienced before, and we are now expecting significant revenue declines.”

The $131 million in budget withholds for DESE include $123 million for the school foundation formula and $7 million for school transportation.

“I have always been a strong supporter of education. These were extremely difficult decisions I never thought I would have to make in just a few months,” Parson tells Capitol reporters.

The budget restrictions announced on Monday are in addition to the two rounds announced by the governor in April, of $180 million and $47 million, respectively. In addition to DESE, the restrictions will impact the Office of Administration (OA), the state Department of Corrections, the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), the Department of Social Services (DSS) and other agencies.

Governor Parson was joined at the press conference by DESE Commissioner Margie Vandeven and other Cabinet members.

“It’s important to make these decisions now, so school districts can adjust before next school year. Our intent is to withhold now and avoid withholds once school begins,” says Parson.

The top Democrat in the Missouri House is blaming tax cuts approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature, for the education cuts.

“The governor’s devastating cuts to public education are as much a product of failed Republican tax policy as they are of the coronavirus pandemic,” House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, says in a written statement. “Every time Republicans chipped away at Missouri’s revenue base, Democrats warned these short-sighted decisions would pay a terrible dividend when the next economic downturn hit, and there always is a next one.”

The Missouri Legislature approved a $35.2 billion state operating budget in early May. The new fiscal year begins on July 1.

Coronavirus testing underway among Missouri prison workers and inmates

May 27, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The state has begun coronavirus surveillance testing among Missouri’s prison workers and inmates. During Tuesday’s press conference with Gov. Parson in Jefferson City, Department of Corrections Director Anne Precythe says Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston and South-Central Correctional Center in Licking are in the first phase.

Coronavirus testing underway among Missouri prison workers and inmates

“In order to resume some sense of normalcy in Corrections, which includes things like inmate transfers and family visitation, it is incumbent upon us to participate in sentinel testing,” says Precythe. “This is important to both the governor and me. We now have the necessary number of supplies to be able to meet the needs for testing our entire Division of Adult Institutions staff and offender population, which is approximately 32,000 people.”

The women’s prison in northwest Missouri’s Chillicothe and Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City will be in phase two.

Forty-five inmates and 27 workers, mostly at Southeast Correctional Center, have tested positive for the coronavirus. One inmate previously at the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph died at a Kansas City hospital from complications brought on by COVID-19.

The state has 22 adult prisons. Intake centers are at the prisons in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre, mid-Missouri’s Fulton, northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph and northeast Missouri’s Vandalia for women. Precythe says the department will refine its method along the way to continue testing at other prisons.

“This pandemic has repeatedly caused us to say ‘We don’t know what we don’t know’. But the only way to know for sure is to do testing,” says Precythe. “I want staff to know with confidence if they are negative and I believe this approach will begin to give people confidence as they not only come to work but as they go home to their families.”

The agency has not mapped out a timeline to complete testing within all prisons. DOC spokesperson Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet the details are still being worked out and will be developed based upon how things go in the initial phases.

Missouri National Guard medics are helping with the testing.

Inmate who stomped an elderly woman to death during a 1982 robbery dies in Missouri prison

May 26, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

An inmate who’s been incarcerated for 37 years for the high-profile murder of an elderly woman in eastern Missouri has died in a Jefferson City prison.

This picture of Harold Felker was taken at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in February 2020 (file photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections website)

64-year-old Harold Felker was convicted of second degree murder and first degree robbery for the August 1982 death of Lillie Hildebrant in eastern Missouri’s Jefferson County.

The murder received major news media coverage in St. Louis, at the time.

A 1982 UPI story says the 85-year-old Hildebrant was stomped to death, and that her chest was crushed. About $10,000 in cash was taken during the robbery.

The Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) says Felker was pronounced dead Saturday night at the maximum-security Jefferson City Correctional Center. The DOC says Felker died of apparent natural causes.

Felker entered the state prison system in February 1983.

BREAKING: Missouri becomes first state to execute a prisoner during coronavirus outbreak

May 19, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

At 6:10 p.m. today, convicted murderer Walter Barton, 64, was pronounced dead at the state prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre. Barton was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1991 brutal stabbing death of 81-year-old Gladys Kuehler of southwest Missouri’s Ozark.

Convicted murderer Walter Barton was executed on May 19, 2020 at the maximum-security prison in Bonne Terre (undated photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections)

His death makes Missouri the first state in the nation to follow through with an execution since the coronavirus began wreaking havoc on the U.S. According to CBS News, COVID-19 concerns have led to other states postponing executions among death row inmates. The Death Penalty Information Center lists Alabama as carrying out the last execution – on March 5.

Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet social distancing measures were taken to protect those involved in the execution. She says the nine witnesses were divided into three rooms big enough for them to stay 6 feet apart. According to Pojmann, everyone who entered the prison were screened, with a temperature check, before being allowed to enter, and everyone was given a face cover and hand sanitizer.

Pojmann says no staff or inmates at the maximum-security prison have tested positive for COVID-19.

For nearly 30 years, Barton’s case has been working its way through the court system by way of five different trials. His attorneys attempted to have their client’s execution overturned by claiming the man is innocent and is also incompetent to be put to death due to a brain injury. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Barton’s appeals and Gov. Mike Parson told reporters Monday that he did not foresee any reason to intervene.

Despite Parson’s comment, death penalty opponents went to Jefferson City today to urge the governor to grant clemency to Barton. A caravan of vehicles drove by the Governor’s Mansion honking and flashing their vehicle lights. A press release from the organizers says key testimony against Barton came from a jailhouse snitch with a long criminal history of crimes of dishonesty such as fraud, bad check writing, forgery, escape and the use of aliases. The release says the state agreed to drop a pending charge against that witness in exchange for her testimony against Barton.

What you need to know about the revised Missouri budget proposal

April 29, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Legislature will have a big job now that lawmakers are back to work – dealing with a projected state budget shortfall of about $700 million. Members have been on break for about one month due to the coronavirus threatening the state.

The Missouri House and Senate convene on January 9, 2019 for a joint session to commemorate the 100th General Assembly (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The Missouri House of Representatives is considering a revised state budget for the fiscal year beginning in July. The $34.9 billion budget outline is about a $4.5 billion increase over Gov. Mike Parson’s original fiscal plan released in January. It includes $10 billion in state general revenue, $14.5 billion in federal funding and $10.3 billion in other funds.

The blueprint includes two major differences from what Gov. Parson recommended in January. The latest version no longer includes a 2% pay raise that Parson recommended for most state workers and MoHealthnet is planning to use a savings plan in which the state moves to an outpatient fee schedule that is tied to Medicare. According to Chris Dunn with Missouri House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith’s office, upwards of $90 million would be saved in hospital and managed care reimbursements.

The revised budget plan includes about $10.4 billion to the Missouri Department of Social Services. Most of the Social Services budget goes to Medicaid costs.

About $3.5 billion in base funding would go to Missouri’s K-12 public schools – the same amount as in the current year’s budget. As for school bus transportation, $100 million is being proposed – a reduction of about $7 million compared to the current budget year.

Missouri Senate

About $1.5 billion would go to the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development – a roughly $200 million increase over the current year. The figure includes both the general revenue cuts that Representative Smith proposed and an increase of federal authority should federal funds be made available to support the state’s two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Under the plan, they would get a 10% reduction in funding compared to the current year.

The Department of Corrections budget proposal would be about $805 million – a $24 million increase over the current year. About $38.5 million would go to reimbursing county jails for transporting inmates and holding offenders who end up going to state prison – the same amount as the current year’s budget.

The Missouri Department of Transportation would get about $3 billion, compared to $2.93 billion in the current year’s budget.

Under the House plan, there would be some shuffling of the size of the state’s workforce. Missouri would have 53,935 state workers, a net increase of three full-time equivalent state employees.

Full-time equivalent, or FTE, refers to the number of hours worked by a single employee in a week. FTE is used to convert the hours worked by part-time employees into those worked by full-time staff.

The largest staff increase is 197.5 FTEs the governor requested to be added in the Department of Public Safety to help with the pandemic. The largest reduction would be 128 FTE workers in the Department of Corrections. As the offender population has declined, the agency plans to consolidate certain housing units so that some housing units can be closed. This is allowing the department to reduce vacant FTE positions.

The Missouri House is debating the budget bills and final approval is expected today. Then the Missouri Senate will go from there. Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, says the Senate Appropriations Committee is planning to take up the budget on Saturday and work through the weekend.

22 inmates within Missouri prison test positive for coronavirus

April 23, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Department of Corrections (MODOC) says 19 offenders in a quarantined housing wing at Southeast Correctional Center (SECC) in Charleston have tested positive for COVID-19. Following positive test results for three of the wing’s residents earlier this week, the Department of Corrections tested 146 people — all 64 housing wing residents and 82 staff members. None of the staff members tested positive.

22 inmates within Missouri prison test positive for coronavirus

According to MODOC, the affected SECC housing wing has been quarantined since April 15, when the first resident with COVID-19 symptoms was tested and relocated to an isolation unit. While the wing is in quarantine, the department says residents of the other three wings of the housing unit have been screened, with temperature checks. All offenders with COVID-19 symptoms and their cell mates are relocated and housed in separate cells in an isolation unit pending test results.

Three SECC staff members who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, as well as all staff with whom they had close contact, are in quarantine at home.

The department says no offender currently housed in a state prison other than SECC has tested positive for COVID-19.

Earlier this month, the state prison system announced that a former St. Joseph prisoner in northwest Missouri died from complications caused by the respiratory virus. The Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center inmate was diagnosed with COVID-19 after being transferred to a Kansas City area hospital March 19th. Though he later tested negative twice for coronavirus, he remained hospitalized for other medical conditions.

Earlier story:

Missouri prison inmate tests positive for coronavirus
https://wp.me/p16gMv-wrW

High-profile overtime pay case for corrections officers heard by Missouri Supreme Court

April 22, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The Missouri Supreme Court heard remote oral arguments on Wednesday in a high-profile case involving the Cole County circuit court’s 2018 decision to award more than $113 million in overtime pay for Missouri corrections officers.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice George Draper listens to remote oral arguments involving the corrections officer overtime pay case on April 22, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of Missouri Supreme Court communications counsel Beth Riggert)

It’s a case that’s been working its way through the court system for eight years, and it’s a case that could have major implications across the street from the Supreme Court in Jefferson City, at the Legislature. That’s because of difficult budget times.

The key argument both sides emphasized on Wednesday is whether pre- and post-shift activities for corrections officers is compensable. The state attorney general’s office, which represents the Missouri Department of Corrections, says no. St. Louis attorney Gary Burger, who represents the corrections officers, says it is.

Wednesday was only the second time in history that the Missouri Supreme Court has held remote oral arguments. Due to COVID-19 concerns, only Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice George Draper and a few staffers were in the Jefferson City courtroom. Chief Justice Draper faced a screen where attorneys participated by videoconference. The other six judges participated remotely via teleconference.

There were a few minor glitches, when Supreme Court Judge Laura Denvir Stith’s microphone cut in-and-out a few times. That was quickly fixed. State Solicitor General D. John Sauer had some audio issues early, and Counselor Burger briefly had difficulty finding his timer. Attorneys are allowed set times, for arguments.

Corrections officer Thomas Hootselle Jr. and other officers sued the DOC, on behalf of a proposed class of more than 13,000 officers, for allegedly failing to pay them under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act for pre- and post-shift activities.

While labor agreements executed between the DOC and the Missouri Corrections Officers Association do not specifically address pre- and post-shift activities, Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce ruled in 2018 that pre- and post-shift activities are compensable.

State Solicitor General D. John Sauer argues that the circuit court erred and that the case “involves a judgment imposing enormous liability on Missouri’s taxpayers without legal justification.”

Mr. Sauer cites a 1951 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, about pre- and post-shift activities. He is asking the high court to reverse the Cole County Circuit Court’s decision.

“Because they’re quintessential preliminary and postliminary activities, not the work of consequence that these employees (corrections officers) are employed to perform,” Sauer tells the Supreme Court.

Solicitor General Sauer also says the trial court excluded testimony from the DOC’s damages experts.

Mr. Hootselle and the corrections officers are represented by Mr. Burger. During his oral arguments, Counselor Burger emphasized the main points in his 135-page brief to the high court. He says the class of more than 13,000 Missouri corrections officers “risk their lives every day maintaining safety and security at appellant Missouri Department of Corrections’ prisons.”

Burger says the DOC requires its officers to perform pre- and post-shift activities that are critical to prison safety and security, but has refused to pay the officers for those activities. He also says the time between shift changes, when pre- and post-shift activities happen, “are often when prisoners attack others, try to escape, or try to smuggle contraband.”

“You can’t escort offenders within a prison without getting the equipment first,” Burger tells the Missouri Supreme Court. “Without getting the handcuffs, without getting the radios or the keys or the appropriate equipment.”

Chief Justice Draper requested additional memos from Solicitor General Sauer and Counselor Burger, as arguments concluded. There is no timetable on when the Missouri Supreme Court will issue its decision.

High-profile corrections officer overtime case heads to Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday

April 21, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The Missouri Supreme Court will hear remote oral arguments on Wednesday morning in a case involving a lower court’s decision to award more than $113 million in overtime pay for Missouri corrections officers.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice George Draper listens to oral arguments in the Lamar Johnson case on April 14, 2020 in Jefferson City. Because of COVID-19 concerns, it was the first time in history the court held remote arguments (photo courtesy of Missouri Supreme Court communications counsel Beth Riggert)

Because of COVID-19 concerns, only Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice George Draper is expected to be in the Jefferson City courtroom on Wednesday. He’ll face a screen through which attorneys will participate remotely by videoconference. The other six judges will be participating remotely via teleconference. You will be able to listen to the oral arguments live on the Supreme Court’s website.

This will only be the second time in history that the Missouri Supreme Court has used remote arguments. The first time was last week in the Lamar Johnson case.

Wednesday’s oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Following a jury trial, Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce awarded the money to the corrections officers, and has also ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) to pay for pre- and post-shift activities for officers, such as time to pick up and return radios and inventory weapons.

A corrections officer named Thomas Hootselle Jr. and other officers sued the DOC, on behalf of a proposed class of more than 13,000 officers, for allegedly failing to pay them under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act for pre- and post-shift activities. Labor agreements executed between the DOC and the Missouri Corrections Officers Association do not specifically address pre- and post-shift activities.

The Cole County circuit court has ruled that pre- and post-shift activities are compensable.

The DOC is being represented at the Missouri Supreme Court by the state attorney general’s office. In its 127-page brief, state Solicitor General D. John Sauer says the court erred in its decision and ruled in favor of the corrections officers after a one-sided jury trial. Sauer says only the corrections officers were allowed to present expert evidence.

“This case involves a judgment imposing enormous liability on Missouri’s taxpayers without legal justification,” Sauer writes in his brief to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Mr. Sauer is asking the high court to reverse the circuit court’s decision.

Mr. Hootselle and the corrections officers are represented by St. Louis attorney Gary Burger.

In his 135-page brief to the Missouri Supreme Court, Mr. Burger says the class of more than 13,000 Missouri corrections officers “risk their lives every day maintaining safety and security at appellant Missouri Department of Corrections’ prisons.” He says the DOC requires its officers to perform pre- and post-shift activities that are critical to prison safety and security, but has refused to pay the officers for these activities.

“The officers’ claim here is simple: MDOC must pay guards for guarding,” Burger writes.

Counselor Berger also says that the time between shift changes, when pre- and post-shift activities happen, “are often when prisoners attack others, try to escape, or try to smuggle contraband.”

The class action lawsuit began in 2012, and the circuit court issued its ruling in 2018.

While the Missouri Supreme Court will hear the case on Wednesday, there is no timetable on when they will issue a decision.