Washington Post: “The U.S. Marshals Service plans to move about 400 inmates out of the D.C. jail after a recent surprise inspection found evidence of “systemic” mistreatment of detainees, including unsanitary living conditions and the punitive denial of food and water, officials said.
“While ‘a formal summary’ of the inspection, conducted last month, is still being prepared, Lamont J. Ruffin, the acting marshal for U.S. District Court in Washington, told the D.C. Corrections Department in a letter Monday that the findings “may warrant further examination” by the Justice Department’s civil rights division. The jail, formally known as the Central Detention Facility (CDF), houses about 1,500 detainees, of which roughly 400 are inmates awaiting court appearances in federal cases or post-sentencing assignment to federal prisons. In light of the inspection’s findings, the Justice Department said Tuesday, the federal detainees in the CDF will be moved to the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa.
“The move will not include about 120 detainees, including about 40 defendants who face federal charges in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, who are being held in the Corrections Department’s Central Treatment Facility (CTF), the Marshals Service said. That facility is located with the jail in Southeast Washington. Ruffin, who ordered the inspection, said conditions at the CTF ‘were observed to be largely appropriate and consistent with federal prisoner detention standards,’ and that the problems were primarily in the main jail.”