ST. LOUIS – Last week, FOX 2 exposed dangers at the former St. Louis Medium Security Institution (MSI) Jail, also known as the Workhouse. 

The city’s top public safety official now calls the issues there “eye-opening” and says he’s looking into changes to alleviate growing safety concerns. Recently, three young men got into the facility through holes in the fencing and unintentionally locked themselves into an old cell. 

It’s been three weeks since that incident. Though it may seem humorous, police say it’s no laughing matter.   

A spokesman told FOX 2 that city staff had been requested to repair the fencing last week. The same holes in the fences remain.   

“That triggers some concerns for me,” said Alderman Tom Oldenburg of the incident, during Thursday’s meeting with the aldermanic Public Safety Committee.   

He asked the Public Safety Director, Charles Coyle, what was being done about those concerns.

Closing the Workhouse (MSI) a year and half ago has been a hallmark of Mayor Tishaura Jones’ first term in office. The has mayor formed a committee to “reimagine” a future use of the site, with possibilities ranging from a museum to a go-kart track. 

The city’s towing department is currently using it as an overflow lot. The grounds are littered with dozens of wrecked cars, including cars that have been overturned and even set on fire.

“I still do think it’s the obligation of some government unit to maintain that property while it runs through its course of being ‘reimagined,’” Oldenburg said to Coyle.  

“[Work] has started on trying to make sure people couldn’t get in,” Coyle responded.   

There are signs of a cleanup underway: old tires piled up near the main entrance are gone.  

The holes in the fencing, however, have not been fixed.  

“It is eye-opening. If kids got in there, it could have been much worse,” Coyle told FOX 2. “We’re going to take a look at MSI to see where we can have an input on it [and] what can be done.” 

“I think the committee’s going to continue to inquire until that building and that property is secure, so that this can’t happen. To the public safety director’s point, it could have been worse, and what’s next,” Oldenburg said.  

If the city covered the empty Famous Barr building downtown with metal plates to keep people from getting inside and getting hurt just last week, it can do something about the Workhouse,” Oldenburg said.  

The City of St. Louis doesn’t own the Famous Barr (Railway Exchange) building. It does own the Workhouse site.