Deluded Neuropeon Republicans Believe Neuropean Liberals in DC are 'Soft on Crime' [means ‘soft on the Blacks']. But Who Do They Think Crammed the DC Jail and DC Court with Black People?
/From [HERE] The Republican-led House approved a resolution Wednesday that would block a District of Columbia police accountability bill, further escalating the feud over the right to self-government in the nation’s capital.
The House voted 229-189 on the measure — called a disapproval resolution — marking the third time this year that House Republicans have sought to overturn local D.C. legislation, with some Democratic help, claiming officials have been soft on crime in the midst of a multi-year spike. But the bill is unlikely to advance in the Democratic-led Senate, and President Joe Biden has promised a veto.
Republicans pressed ahead, saying congressional scrutiny of the District’s laws is long overdue.
DC Jail is 91% Black. Although the percentage of the overall Black population in DC has decreased, the percentage of incarcerated Blacks, particularly Black men, has remained relatively high and stable since 1990. [MORE] The vast majority of inmates are held pre-trial. All trials have been subject to postponements because of COVID. Felony trials in some cases are being set in 2024 due to the busy calendars of prosecutors, courts and defense attorneys. [MORE] and [MORE] This means persons held pre-trial and presumed innocent must wait for trial in this reprehensible jail run by liberals. [who do you think has jammed the jail with Blacks? Do republican klansman-like judges and prosecutors run the courts or police force?? DC is 95% liberal and white liberal prosecutors/judges and their rolebotic servant Blacks are responsible, - just as they are in many places where Blacks try to live] [MORE]
The intersection between health care and prison reform has arguably never been more publicly visible than through the inhumane living conditions endured by the detainees at the D.C. county jail. This jail has consistently come under scrutiny regarding its conditions including, but not limited to, extreme confinement lasting more than 400 days and a class action lawsuit pertaining to proper COVID protocols. Unfortunately, this is just one example of the many jails, prisons, and detention centers in America that force detainees to suffer through uninhabitable conditions.
An impromptu inspection in October of 2021 revealed that the D.C. jail’s roughly 1,500 detainees are forced to live in systemic, inhumane and unsanitary living conditions. Notedly, many of these detainees have yet to be found guilty and are currently awaiting trial. These egregious conditions range from denial of food, water, and showers for punitive reasons, cells filled with sewage and blood, water leaks, mold, roaches, and lack of access to necessary medical care. There is no question that long term exposure to these conditions leads to physical and psychological trauma, which increases the likelihood that they will require future medical care.
Many representatives have likened the jail’s conditions to unconstitutional, cruel and unusual punishments. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene drew attention to the matter by visiting the January 6th defendants and claimed they face conditions worse than the homeless and prisoners of war. The roughly 40 January 6th detainees, however, are located in the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF). They are isolated from the jail’s general population with more sanitary conditions, and thus they will not be transferred immediately. In fact, many of the jail’s other detainees have filed emergency motions to transfer into CTF.
A 2015 report on D.C. prisoners’ living conditions proves that authorities were notified of these inhumane living conditions. These conditions, however, are nothing new to the Black detainees who make up 87% of the jail’s populationand have repeatedly complained throughout the years. It is no surprise that U.S. media attention and legal action began to rise due to complaints made by the mostly white, January 6th defendants. Recently, a U.S. judge held D.C. jail officials in contempt for delaying medical treatment to a January 6th defendant that broke his wrist in custody and required surgery. This judge further recommended that the Department of Justice investigate potential civil rights violations at the jail.
Following the 2021 inspection and recent legal actions, the U.S. Marshal ordered the transfer of all sentenced inmates beginning November 8, 2021. Unfortunately, many of these inmates will be transferred to a prison in Lewisburg, PA where living conditions are not much better and inmates will likely have less access to their lawyers. “The notion that Lewisburg is an improvement over the D.C. jail points to the degree of human suffering occurring right now,” said the D.C. Public Defenders Office. The rest of the detainees will remain in D.C. until their upcoming hearing dates where they will either be released or quarantined before being transferred to Lewisburg or federal prison. [MORE]
The ACLU recently stated,
“We urge Mayor Muriel Bowser, Deputy Director for Public Safety and Justice Christopher Geldart, and DOC Director Quincy Booth to move as many residents to the Central Treatment Facility as possible and immediately address the urgent health and safety needs at CDF, which clearly fall below minimum constitutional standards. And we will continue through our Banks case to fight for the right of everyone detained in DOC facilities to humane treatment.” [MORE]