An article published in The Washington Post noted that 1,500 people held at D.C. jail have been confined to cells 23 hours a day for a year. The article quotes DC Dept. of Corrections Director Quincy Booth referring to a a federal judge’s order in response to a class-action lawsuit brought by inmates last spring over inadequate coronavirus controls leaving the DOC “no wiggle room for us to do anything different.”
D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), chairman of the judiciary and public safety committee, said he understands jail officials’ desire to avert coronavirus outbreaks and comply with court oversight. But the status quo, he said, is doing “active harm” and cannot go on.