Watchdog Calls Out D.C. for Dragging Feet on Construction of New Jail
A report issued by the Office of the D.C. Auditor (ODCA) on May 28, 2025, outlined the municipality’s “urgent need for a new jail.” The population of the existing lockup, spread over two adjacent buildings constructed between 1976 and 1992, soared to 1,945 in June 2024, from just 1,384 a year earlier; by September 2024, it had climbed to 2,023, a 46.2% increase in just 14 months that put it among the 50 largest jails in the U.S.
Part of the crowding is driven by long periods of incarceration; the average length of stay was 96.5 days for men and 45.5 days for women, far higher than the 38.8-day average in all U.S. jails of similar size. In fact, those held for over a year occupied almost two-thirds of available bed space during the audit period. Yet plans for a new jail announced in 2010, 2015 and 2019 all stalled out before any construction could begin.
Meanwhile, the report found that the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) had failed to maintain a host of critical infrastructure elements in the existing facilities: cell doors, locks, keys, gates, plumbing, and wiring. “[C]onsistent healthy temperatures” were not maintained in the jail, either. Conditions were called unclean, unhygienic and unsafe, thanks in large part to uncontrolled infestations of “parasites, vermin, and mold.” Staffers making regular inspections of environmental and sanitary conditions filed reports that were analog, not digital, meaning that they were insufficient to “support the analysis of repeat and systemic problems with facilities,” the report said.
Short-staffing was called “chronic.” About 1,000 people work at the lockup, including 700 uniformed guards—1 for every 3 detainees, a ratio in line with other jails. But an “outdated linear design” made their job harder, the report noted, requiring more staff. Vacancies also left the jail “heavily” reliant on existing staff to work overtime, costing the DOC some $30 million a year. Yet reported instances of “harassment, misconduct, and disrespect negatively impact staff morale and resident well-being,” the report continued. Worse, the DOC’s budget for staff training actually shrank during the audit period—even as two staffers were convicted of smuggling contraband and two more were accused.
With so many detainees crowded into the aging lockup for such long stays, it is unsurprising that the jail death rate was three times higher than the national average. Having so few staffers also drove the overdose rate 10 times higher than the national average, even as there were 76 detections of contraband; with 148 uses of Narcan, many more drugs apparently went undetected. The lack of guards left those on hand overly reliant on use of force—with 400 documented incidents during the audit period—and restrictive housing (RH). Nearly 25% of uses of force were occasioned by violence between under-supervised detainees. RH held about 11.1% of detainees, a rate almost twice the national average.
The U.S. Marshals Service stopped holding federal detainees at the jail after its own auditors in 2022 found “pervasive” evidence of drug usage and a strong “odor of marijuana,” as PLN reported; some of those federal detainees “had observable injuries with no corresponding medical or incident reports,” with water and food apparently “withheld from detainees for punitive reasons.” [See: PLN, July 2022, p.10.]
The audit also called out DOC for leaving detainees with inconsistent access to legal counsel, especially those detainees held in RH. Access to operable tablets for communication was also inconsistent, the report found. In conclusion, ODCA said it was clear that “progress has not been made” since the last audit five years ago. But even collecting and analyzing data needed to produce the report was hamstrung by DOC’s “lack of systematic, digital data collection”—which also made it “extremely difficult for DOC to analyze problems, identify trends, and develop solutions.” Safer and more humane buildings will help, the report noted, but “without addressing the many other systemic issues, both jail residents and staff will continue to live and work in a dangerous and unhealthy environment.” See: Urgent Need for New D.C. Jail, ODCA (May 2025).
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