You can see it from the air: Washington, DC gets grittier the farther South and East you go. At the most Southeast point is the Central Detention Facility, or DC Jail, located at 1901 D Street, opened in March 1976.
This jail is easy to find because it’s right next door to RFK Stadium. The metro stop is Stadium/Armoury. Here’s another arial view:
This jail is dangerous to be in for many, many reasons. The residents are probably the biggest danger. Another danger is the building itself. Apparently a guard there came down with Legionnaires’ disease:
“This troubling snapshot of conditions inside the jail, formally known
as the Central Detention Facility, is based on the District
government’s own reports detailing court-mandated inspections of the
premises by the D.C. Department of Health. Copies of documents
compiled over the last 18 months were obtained by The Washington Post
under the D.C. Freedom of Information Act after a corrections officer
at the jail nearly died of Legionnaires’ disease in June.
While health officials say it is impossible to determine whether the
guard became infected at the jail, the case has heightened concerns
over just how grave the health and environmental situation is within
the building. Since the jail opened in the 1900 block of D Street SE
in March 1976, it has been plagued by chronic sanitary and maintenance
deficiencies despite protracted litigation on behalf of inmates and
extensive intervention by the federal courts.”
blow it up !!!!
i think your prison system is a disgrace for humans
it sounds like we need something like this in the uk, may be it would lower our 71% reoffending record. it seems that only criminals could disagree.
Prison is supposed to be bad, that is why you are there because you cannot live right. No offense but if all institutes had it this bad it would not be so easy to make your way back
Vicki, you’re an idiot.
May your lack of empathy one day find it’s way back to you.
The punishment aspect of prisons is supposed to be from the incarceration, being deprived of freedom. It’s not supposed to be a way for the state to kill people from dangerous and inhumane conditions.
This jail is nothing compared to cook county jail(chicago’s jail) i was in DC and ended up in your jail for some b.s but it WAS’NT NOTHING COMPARED TO CHICAGO!!! COME TO CCDOC AND SEE A REAL JAIL!!!!!!
The prison system in the U.S.A is a joke. It’s susposed to be a “Department of corrections” but all it is a place to meet more criminals and learn new ways to commit more crimes and join gangs, at least here in Chicago if your not part of some gang your going to have a hard time coping with the jail system, you have to worry about your life literally. Half of the people in the system are not going to see the streets again in their life, what do they have to live for??? How can you rehabilitate them?? They look at it as my lifes over, so i’m going to raise hell, what does your life mean to me?? Nothing!! Whats the worse that could happen to them? Mabye some segragation time (the hole) but what are you going to do? Lock them up!! They already are.There needs to be a new way to deal with crime, what that way is, well I do’nt know, it’s not up to me.
Pig. Pig Pen. Pigs belong in pens. They are building them all for themselves and just don’t know it yet.
evie, if your going to open your mouth try making some sense.
the system puts criminals away and does there best to forget about them. out of site out of mind. do you really think some fascist pig power hungry goverment is really concerned about rehabilitation, or the state of our country’s jails? think again.
That story is not true. You did not get someone’s medical records through the freedom of information act…And I know your story is false
I think you need to re-read the story TS… They didnt say they got the corrections officers medical records, they said:
Either way, where I dont think any criminal should have rights to cable tv, gym, recreational activities etc etc, I do believe that they have the right to be treated humanely.
Vicki, you’re an idiot.
May your lack of empathy one day find it’s way back to you.
Comment by Darren — June 30, 2005 @ 8:03 pm
Are you saying that I, or anyone, should feel sorry for criminals? To hell with that. If they didn’t want to be in there in the first place, they wouldn’t commit crimes. If they like being in there, thus committing further crimes, let them. If it were up to me, every criminal that entered a prison would contract some sort of infectious disease. Then they could be quarantined for the rest of their lives, never to commit a crime again. I think that if a criminal is going to act against the constitution, breaking any combination of its laws, is subject to the lowest possible humane treatment. You give up your rights when you intrude on others’. The school system is where we need to focus our priorities. Judging by the articles on this page, and the comments about them, schools aren’t teaching you guys anything. Most of you people are disgusting anyway, and it wouldn’t hurt for you to do a tour in one of these establishments.
My son is mentally ill and has been in the central facility for awhile. He will not talk to us or let us help, he thinks we are dead. My heart is broken looking at the facility and the comments from some of the people of this site. He thought he could go to DC to a hospital and get cured, but ended up violating a release considition from Florida and being held in DC until they decided whether to let Florida come get him. This has been going on since July 19, 2005.
The statement made about DC jail is true. The jail is horrible. The corrections officers have been known to tell about their own health problems stemming from the building’s insanitary conditions. Various inmates and CO’s have had boils removed, fungus eating away at their skin, etc. I visit my husband twice a week in DC jail. He tells me of things that the public hasn’t heard of. For instance, the jail just installed hundreds of new cameras and a state of the art security system (so they say) and the air ducts are blocked with dirt and dust. The visiting hall is somewhat clean but behind those very walls is another story. A number of inmates have issues that cannot be solved by being locked up. They need professional counseling to get to the root of their problems. This is why people reoffend, they don’t know what else to do to let out their fustration or to reach out for help.
You got to be kidding me. You are an enabaler. You are giving your husband an excuse to commit crimes. It comes down to this. We all have to make choices. Are you telling me that your husband does not know right from wrong? Are you telling me that when he committed his criminal act, he didnt make the choice to do what ever it was he did.
Ofcourse DC Jail is a sh#t hole. If you know that, why would you do anything that could even possibly land you in that place. It is very simple. IF YOU CANT DO THE TIME, DONT DO THE CRIME!! If you do the crime, shut the hell up and take your punnishment.
no. if you would not them to do that to animals, why have done to a human being.
my bad. if you would not want them to do that to animals. then why to humans. that is very RUDE to other people who has been wrongfully accused. and the ones that are there for doing the crime deserves a liitle better than a slave.
The saying its different strokes for different folks. Some didnt and dont have a choice some r not aware of the fact called survivle that persist in DC. Some r idiots and have been greedy. Some r really cruel but not all so lets treat them accourdingly.
Opinions regarding how the system SHOULD function in this case is irrelevant; the argument that criminals should be subject to poor conditions is moot, and actually somewhat contradictive.
Yes, criminals commit crimes; it’s what lands them in jail. As someone else said, the punishment is the incarceration itself; exposure to things such as diseases is inhumane. Health violations are against the law; society is held to certain expectations, as is the censor. If we support the laws that place the criminals in jail, then we must also support those that keep them safe; in the end human rights apply to everyone.
So long as they are, at the very least, human, they are protected by the law just as much as any other.
Claire – Yours is the first intelligent reply on this post. Any of us could have a child that gets into trouble and ends up in a jail.
Innocent until proven guilty, remember.
Many are waiting for trial, many are mentally ill, and many are drug addicts. If the addicted are removed to treatment and the mentally ill to proper facilities – at least you would have a better chance at handling the real criminals.