jail

Missouri’s competency-to-stand-trial system has become so overloaded that even people accused of low-level crimes now wait years for effective treatment. Most defendants bide their time in county jails that sheriffs acknowledge aren’t equipped to meet mental health needs.

More than 350 ICE detainees have spent time in the Phelps County jail this year, and more of them are on the way after a two-month pause.

Hundreds of Missouri residents are waiting in limbo after being found incompetent to stand trial. But until they can get a space at a state psychiatric hospital or otherwise receive mental health services, many are stuck in jail — despite not being convicted of a crime.

The Kansas City Council moved forward with a plan to build a modular jail with about 100 beds. Officials say the temporary facility is necessary, as plans to build a permanent municipal jail will take years.

About 50 people gathered to mourn Leo Cruz-Silva, who died by suicide in a jail in Ste. Genevieve last week while being detained by ICE. His was the second reported suicide in ICE custody in Missouri this year.

An affidavit outlines the events leading up to Charles Adair’s death and the KBI investigation that followed. Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Fatherley is charged with second-degree murder.

Leo Cruz-Silva, 34, was arrested for public intoxication and died by apparent suicide after just one day at an ICE detention center in Ste. Genevieve. He is at least the 15th ICE detainee death nationwide, and the second in Missouri this year.

Shawn Koch saved hundreds of threatening emails from her ex, Christopher Koch. He threatened to kill her, get her fired, keep their children from her and ruin her life.

Judy Henderson spent 35 years in prison for a murder conviction, despite maintaining that she was innocent. Freed by the Missouri governor, Henderson's new autobiography “When the Light Finds Us,” documents the cruelty of the state's prisons and what it took her to keep going.

Attorneys for the family of Charles Adair, 50, whose death was ruled a homicide, saw body camera footage of his death Tuesday. It showed Wyandotte County deputy sheriff Richard Fatherley kneeling on Adair’s back for a minute and a half, they said.

Former detainees are speaking out about what they say are poor conditions at an immigration detention center in eastern Kansas.

A coroner's report found that 50-year-old Charles Adair died by "mechanical asphyxia" at the Wyandotte County Detention Center after a deputy kneeled on his back and restrained him. A similar tactic caused the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.