D.C. Finds Dangers in Ailing Jail

By Serge F. Kovaleski

WASHINGTON -- The D.C. jail has suffered a severe deterioration in health and environmental conditions, jeopardizing the well-being of inmates and employees and intensifying pressure on the District government to undertake wholesale improvements at the city's main detention facility, according to documents and interviews.

Inmates routinely resort to washing their underwear, jumpsuits and sheets in cell toilets because the laundry machines have been broken for 10 months, forcing officials to send dirty clothes and linens to the Lorton prison in Virginia – a service that has been sporadic.

Vermin are rampant in cellblocks and in kitchen areas. Insects breed in puddles of water, the fault of leaky, decrepit plumbing. There is little air movement in critical areas of the building because vents are clogged with dust and grime, creating a potential trap for airborne diseases and at times pushing room temperatures hazardously high. Some inmates have endured days wearing only underwear because of a shortage of jumpsuits, and at least 29 nurses worked at the jail last year without any record that they underwent screening for tuberculosis – a condition of employment there.

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.

Over the years, judges have issued numerous orders to improve deplorable conditions, appointed special masters to monitor jail operations and required the regular inspections of the facility. A court order limits the capacity to 1,674 detainees, roughly 65 percent of whom at any given time are awaiting trial. The remainder of the jail's population is either serving misdemeanor sentences or waiting to be sentenced.

The intercession has produced some results: Medical and mental health services at the jail – once known for pervasive tuberculosis, woeful AIDS treatment and high suicide rates – have improved significantly since a judge placed the operations under the control of a receiver five years ago. And in the 20 months since Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) took office, the D.C. Department of Corrections has moved to ease conditions, including installing two new large chillers and a cooling tower that went on line in June to better air temperatures.

The state of the jail is now receiving greater attention because the facility, six halfway houses and a treatment center will be the only correctional operations left under the purview of the District government. As part of a financial rescue plan for the city signed into law by President Clinton in 1997, the Lorton Correctional Complex in Virginia will close by the end of next year.

But despite the improvements, the jail remains a hazardous place. Dissatisfied with the D.C. Health Department's follow-up to the Legionnaires' case, the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents about 450 corrections officers at the jail, got the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to inspect the facility.

Three weeks ago, a medical officer and industrial hygienist from the agency, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted a survey over a day and a half mainly of the receiving and discharge area, where officer Allan Lucas Jr. was working at the time he contracted the Legionella bacterium. A report on the inspection is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Ten days ago, court-appointed special master Karen M. Schneider called for a meeting to discuss measures that can be taken to resolve long-standing problems at the facility and the potential risks as detailed in the last Health Department inspection report covering July 5 to Aug. 2.

In a two-page letter to inmate advocates who have been involved in lengthy litigation against the jail, Schneider wrote that general housekeeping has improved "noticeably." But she also provided a lengthy compilation of hazards repeatedly identified by Health Department inspectors: Roaches were abundant in the laundry unit; mouse droppings were scattered throughout sections of the jail; four cellblocks and almost all control booths staffed by guards had little or no air circulation; many showers did not function; and some occupied cells had no running water.

The most recent Health Department inspection report, dated Aug. 9, which noted improvements in housekeeping, stated: "In some instances, for more or less four weeks, there was no change or collection of washables. . .‚. During the days of inspection, the institution was lacking underwear, socks, T-shirts and jumpsuits . . . the administration was buying underwear daily for the arrival of new inmates to the institution."

The document also laid out dangerous conditions in the male receiving and discharge area, where there was no air movement and the exhaust system was not working: "On July 20, 2000, the room temperature was at 94 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity was at 79 percent, making the area hazardous for officers and inmates."

Overall, the report concluded: "The facility does not have a self-inspection program. The maintenance staff does not answer to the [warden] or her deputies. The situation places the institution at a disadvantage."

The latest fire and safety inspection, conducted last month, paints a potentially perilous picture. In an Aug. 29 memo to warden Patricia Britton, Fire and Safety Marshal Cpl. Ronald Webb wrote that following his appraisal he "realized the potentially grave danger that we as staff and inmates are facing. . .‚. I discovered that the majority of the Central Detention Facility would be in total darkness if the building's power plant or electrical source were ever interrupted." He pointed out the jail "does not have emergency lighting in any of its critical operational areas," including stairwells used for evacuation.

Corrections officials take issue with some of the findings in Health Department inspection reports and also challenge Webb's conclusions. They argue that he is unfamiliar with the jail's backup power system, which they say has three generators to rely on in the event of a primary electrical outage.

In interviews recently conducted at the jail, inmates offered a litany of complaints about the facility, a place where the air is stale and reeks of body odor and disinfectant. They showed bumps and pimples on their skin, presumably from soiled clothing and bed linens. The said they are bitten by insects while lying in their bunks. Some said they wrap their feet in plastic bags to bear slogging through murky water to take a shower.

"I see rats and mice running from cell to cell, and roaches are everywhere, big ones that crawl in your ears and all over you," said Jerry Williams, 38, who had been held at the jail since Aug. 18 on a burglary charge.

Duane Darden, 22, confined to the jail for two months on charges of drug possession and escaping from a halfway house, piped in: "I got bitten by a roach last night. We got no air on the other side. It is hot as hell over there. You sweat like hell."

Inmates wreak havoc on the jail and engage in a variety of unsanitary practices. For instance, detainees often tear apart electrical sockets in cells to light cigarettes. They cool milk containers in toilet bowls, which apparently have several uses. Inmates burn small fires in them and cook food purchased from the jail canteen.

In their long struggle to ameliorate living conditions – a quest that began with lawsuits filed in 1971 and 1975 that targeted the previous city jail and have since been consolidated – inmate advocates say they would like to see the improvements already achieved in the medical and psychological services extended to the rest of the facility.

The medical receivership, which could end as early as tomorrow at a scheduled court hearing, has been controversial because critics say progress has been made at great expense – an average of $11 million a year. And cracks remain in the system: Officials are at a loss to explain how more than two dozen per-diem nurses were able to work at the jail in 1999 with no documentation showing they had received tuberculosis testing. The jail no longer uses per-diem nurses.

While plaintiffs in the proceedings said they are encouraged by the initial steps taken by the District's corrections director, Odie Washington, they stressed that there have been many false starts over the course of the litigation.

"Corrections has been a truculent, obstructionist and indifferent bureaucracy running a dirty, bad jail," said Eric Lotke, executive director of the D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services Project Inc. "You are pushing up against a bureaucracy that has been very hard to move."

The problems have persisted for myriad reasons, a major one being the warden's office, which has had 12 changes in leadership in 10 years. The turnover rate has precluded the development of a consistent managerial strategy for shoring up the jail and left it adrift as a chaotic day-to-day operation.

Jail officials and corrections experts contend that the facility's woeful state also stems from the District government's failure to appropriate sufficient funds to the facility. Money that has been allocated often has been misused. And the cost of maintenance has risen as the jail has deteriorated through neglect and constant use.

Corrections trustee John L. Clark, who noted that he remains frustrated by the lack of real progress in maintenance operations at the jail, said he thinks Corrections Director Washington has a good plan for capital improvements, using $22 million over five years that the trustee's office helped secure. But Clark said he worries the work could be hampered by the city's inefficient procurement system.

"They are off to a decent start, but there is a tremendous amount of work to do, and the processes of procuring these capital repairs is very cumbersome. That is where I do not have a good comfort level," Clark said. "If they don't use the $22 million in maintenance and repairs, they would have to spend about $120 million to build a brand-new jail because they would be faced with the prospect that the current one would eventually not be usable anymore."

Said Washington: "It is not a matter of credibility now. It is a matter of finishing the job we started and taking this task to completion. We can show a commitment, and it is very evident that there has been no commitment in respect to preventive maintenance made to the jail by the District over the years."

But Washington, who has headed the Corrections Department since March 1999, cautioned: "This is not an overnight fix. It is a situation we can only tackle so much at a time because of the enormity of it. This is what you have when the whole system is faulty."

One key step toward strengthening repair operations has been the installation of a computerized maintenance tracking system that gives real-time information on current repairs and data on previous work. As for the new chillers and cooler, however, the impact has been diminished given that the jail's air distribution system is decrepit. To remedy the situation, the department on Friday started seeking bids on a $5 million job to replace the air-handling system for the jail. The job is expected to take more than two years.

According to documents from a meeting in February with inmate advocates, jail management also vowed to repair the facility's laundry operations. But it has since decided to eventually contract out the work, albeit without having done a formal cost analysis. Jail representatives also told the meeting that $2 million has been budgeted through 2003 to fix the fire alarm system and that the city had designated $279,000 for new prison clothes, including 4,000 new jumpsuits that have since been purchased and received. The facility has also received 690 new mattresses, 7,400 new towels and 2,640 new sheets.

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