D.C. Jail Watchdog Uncovers Alarming Solitary Confinement Practices
A report by the District of Columbia Council for Court Excellence (CCE) released on March 14, 2024, revealed troubling details about solitary confinement in the D.C. Jail, including overly long stays in isolation and refusal by the city Department of Corrections (DOC) to share data.
CCE found that the average detainee stay in restrictive housing was 49 days, exceeding United Nations guidelines against prolonging solitary confinement over 15 days. The report also revealed a lack of transparency from DOC, which denied basic data requests about demographics and mental health of those isolated, as well as use of restraints on them. The jail estimated that 35% of detainees have serious mental illness, making them particularly vulnerable in solitary to self-harm or sinking deeper into insanity. See: More Data is Needed on the Use of Solitary Confinement in D.C., D.C. CCE (Mar. 2024).
Addressing DOC’s request for $460 million to build a new jail, the D.C. council proposed building very limited facilities for solitary confinement so that guards would be forced to use other strategies to manage mentally ill detainees. Advocates also point out that most of those held at the jail are pre-trial detainees, making solitary confinement for punishment an unconstitutional violation of their Fourteenth Amendment rights.
In September 2023, D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) introduced the Eliminating Restrictive and Segregated Enclosures (ERASE) Act to ban “segregated confinement” at the jail, with limited exceptions for short-term placement in “safe cells” for suicide prevention. The bill would also address deplorable conditions at the 48-year-old jail.
In support of the proposed law, the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published its own white paper in November 2023, slamming DOC’s use of solitary confinement for “exacerbat[ing] mental and physical ailments” of detainees and “significantly hamper[ing]” their “ability to reintegrate into society.” The paper noted that 95% of those subjected to isolation while incarcerated will rejoin society, and releasing them more damaged than they were before incarceration only adds to challenges they face with joblessness and poverty. See: Breaking Through Isolation—The Urgent Case for the ERASE Solitary Confinement Act in D.C. Jails, ACLU (Nov. 2023).
In July 2024, the ERASE Act, DC B 25-0541, remained in the Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety.
Additional sources: Bolts Magazine, Washington City Paper