Inmates to be moved from D.C. jail after inspection found unsanitary conditions

Handcuffs.
(Image credit: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

About 400 inmates at the Central Detention Facility in Washington, D.C., are being transferred to a federal prison in Pennsylvania, after inspectors found evidence of "systemic" mistreatment of detainees and unsanitary living conditions at the facility, officials said Tuesday.

Lamont J. Ruffin, the acting marshal for the U.S. District Court in Washington, sent a letter to the D.C. Department of Corrections on Monday, stating that last month, eight deputy U.S. marshals paid an announced visit to the facility, and found "large amounts of standing human sewage" in the "toilets of multiple occupied cells," including several in which water "had been shut off for days." Ruffin wrote that inmates were told by staffers not to cooperate with the review, with one ordering them to "stop snitching."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.