Plans for a new D.C. jail complex cast by corrections leaders as an ambitious, overdue effort to transform a troubled facility into a rehabilitative space would take at least a decade under a fresh timeline released by the D.C. Department of Corrections.
Replacing the inadequate primary holding space for D.C.’s pretrial population has been a stated goal of the District since 2010 and would probably take until 2034 under a best-case scenario, records show — a time frame that worries observers familiar with the jail’s well-documented health and safety challenges.
The long-awaited plans that call for $463 million in the initial phase have already elicited a clash between District leaders over funding. As presented, corrections officials say the two-phase plan offers a generational opportunity to replace a facility that lacks functional space for programs or education and has been plagued by plumbing, sewage, and heating and cooling problems for years.
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A residential area for incarcerated people with mental and behavioral health needs will anchor a first building slated to open by 2030. Current plans call for a second building to open four years later and replace D.C.’s Central Detention Facility, commonly referred to as the D.C. jail. The center, which opened in 1976, has increasingly elicited complaints from jail residents, defense attorneys and legal advocacy groups that have worked for decades to draw attention to unsanitary, unsafe conditions there.
The problems were most recently thrust into public view in 2021, after the U.S. Marshals Service issued a memo describing “systemic failures” at the jail. According to the memo, whose accuracy DOC officials disputed, inspectors with the marshals service saw standing human sewage and found “the smell of urine and feces was overpowering in many locations.” Residents have faced extreme heat because of cooling problems in the summer and extreme cold due to heating problems in the winter, defense attorneys and other advocates say. About 1,250 people are held at the Central Detention Facility; combined with the adjacent Correctional Treatment Facility, the jail complex’s population stands at about 1,900.
Deborah Golden, a prisoners’ rights attorney who has clients at the D.C. jail, said delaying the construction of a new facility is a matter of “people’s lives.” She represents 10 clients who were stabbed or assaulted there, in an environment that Golden said is made less safe by poor sight lines and blind corners that can leave residents vulnerable to attacks.
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Residents of the jail are “in large part pretrial, presumed innocent, many people with serious mental health disabilities, serious physical illnesses, long-term chronic illnesses,” Golden said. “The jail’s physical condition makes all of that harder to deal with, makes people less safe. It makes infectious diseases easier to spread. It makes it harder to protect people from each other and from suicide attempts, and every day it remains in operation is throwing taxpayer dollars down the drain.”
A Department of Corrections spokesperson said officials were “actively addressing maintenance issues that impact the well-being and safety of residents,” including making major renovations to the HVAC system. Responding to Golden’s comments, Corrections Director Tom Faust said in a statement: “Safety and security are top priorities for the CTF Annex Project team ... In planning and designing the new buildings, we are evaluating the best options for numerous factors, including blind spot detection, unit size, layout, building materials, and the integration of modern security technologies throughout both buildings.”
Throwing the timeline into further uncertainty, lawmakers and Bowser officials are clashing over the initial $463 million funding commitment, a portion of which D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) has proposed pushing into future budget years because he said he is not confident enough in the Bowser administration’s plans. While Mendelson has said he is committed to supporting the new jail, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and corrections officials in recent letters to the D.C. Council have underscored the urgency of preventing further delays.
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Without ready access to the money, Faust wrote last week, “There is no possibility of breaking ground on a new correctional facility in FY27.” Bowser wrote in an earlier letter that “the Council’s actions create significant uncertainty as to whether the new jail project will ever occur.” Mendelson, in an interview, responded that Bowser and Faust were “crying crocodile tears,” noting that the council revisits the capital budget every year and could always move funds earlier if the project moves apace and the team is ready to spend it.
Direct calls from D.C. officials for a new jail date back as early as 2010, when corrections department officials requested $420 million in capital funding for a new facility. No money for its construction was tucked in the D.C. budget until fiscal 2023, when Bowser and the D.C. Council put about $250 million over six years to put toward a new jail. Bowser’s latest budget proposal included the biggest commitment to date: $463 million over the next six fiscal years. That amount does not cover construction costs for the second, primary housing facility slated to open in 2034; a corrections spokeswoman said the estimated cost of that phase is not finalized.
A District working group tasked with launching plans for a new jail in 2021 proposed that the city construct an annex replacing the Central Detention Facility first, given its urgent needs. The specifics of the plan, however, hinged on D.C. reducing its jail population, which has surged back to pre-pandemic population averages after dropping as low as 1,270 during the summer of 2020 amid efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
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Misty Thomas, the executive director of the Council for Court Excellence, which led that working group, said she welcomed the financial commitment to the jail in Bowser’s budget but remains concerned about timeline. “The high level plans that have recently been shared by the administration do not get us closer to a facility that would actually replace [the Central Detention Facility], which currently houses more than 1,300 people in substandard, dangerous conditions,” Thomas wrote in an email.
In response to these concerns, corrections officials say the construction sequence is necessary, because some functions of the central detention facility — like intake — must be relocated to the first building before the facility can be demolished. Agency spokeswoman Setareh Yelle said people detained at the central detention facility could be moved as housing becomes available in the first building in 2030.
In the meantime, lawyers for jail residents say they want to know how corrections officials will balance fixing immediate building needs while construction stretches on. Senior corrections officials acknowledged the bind at a webinar last week. They told advocates at the meeting who asked for more details about the process and plans that the buildings will be designed with the goal of having more classroom space, smaller units, better sight lines, and more natural light.
“We don’t want it to ‘look like a jail,’” Faust said.
Corrections leaders and the Department of General Services plan to hold public information sessions and gather input from city residents in June and July. D.C.’s budget is not yet finalized; the council is in the middle of making adjustments and will cast a second and final vote this month.
