CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — The troubled St. Louis County jail has a new director after a series of inmate deaths raised concerns.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Raul Banasco will begin work on Nov. 25 at the St. Louis County Justice Center. He is a former jail administrator at county jails in San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas. Banasco also worked in the Florida prison system. In 2016, the American Jail Association named Banasco the jail administrator of the year.
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The county has not had a permanent director since early 2018.
Among the inmates to die was 20-year-old Lamar Catchings who was accused of faking symptoms four days before his March 1 death from leukemia. Another inmate bled to death from an intestinal hemorrhage.
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