Number of inmate attacks in D.C. Jail soars
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
May 19, 2009
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| The number of attacks on officers and other inmates by prisoners at the D.C. Jail more than doubled from 2007 to 2008, according to the Department of Corrections. (Examiner file) |
Attacks by D.C. Jail inmates on officers and other prisoners more than doubled between 2007 and 2008, according to the Department of Corrections.
Battling back
Department of Corrections’ actions to cut jail assaults
Re-stratification of housing units
Continued training of staff
Restrictions on items known to be used in assaults
Limitations in visitation and social privileges
Expansion of electronic sensing and surveillance systems
Inmate assaults on jail staff soared from 68 in fiscal 2007 to 108 in 2008, the department said Tuesday. Six of the 2008 assaults resulted in serious or severe injury, roughly the same as the seven attacks that caused injury the year before.
The number of inmate-on-inmate attacks that were reported by jail officials jumped ninefold, from five in 2007 to 45 in 2008.
The Corrections Department attributes the drastic increases to more diligent reporting of incidents at the jail, rather than a spike in violent behavior. But the union that represents jail guards said inmates lash out without fear of repercussion.
“The numbers are not going to go down until there’s a reasonable expectation of accountability of one’s action,” said John Rosser, vice chairman of the D.C. corrections officers union. “Telling an inmate ‘I’m going to prosecute’ is like telling a masochist ‘Keep acting like that and I’m going to beat you.’ ”
To qualify as an assault on staff, an inmate must attack “using a weapon in a manner that results in the officer requiring immediate medical attention or the loss of a workday.”
The largest contributor to the 2008 spike was “nonviolent cases where body fluids and other liquids were thrown,” the department explained.
“If I were to punch you in the face as opposed to throwing feces laced with hepatitis at you, which would you prefer?” Rosser asked. “It cracks me up that they call these assaults nonviolent.”
Corrections Director Devon Brown was in a hearing Tuesday and unavailable for comment. The data and other information were obtained through budget documents and a spokeswoman for Mayor Adrian Fenty.
D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee, said the figures reflecting increased numbers of jail assaults could be the result of better reporting, as the Corrections Department said. But “violence in the jail is a serious matter ... and the question is whether these assaults are being prosecuted vigorously.” He said he planned more information from jail officials.
Philip Fornaci, a corrections expert with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, credited the Corrections Department with producing a more realistic accounting of assaults, as the numbers released in previous years were “really erroneous.”
As for attacks on guards by bodily fluid, Fornaci said, that’s all the inmates have.
“Here’s a situation where they don’t have a lot of weapons at their disposal,” he said, “so they’re throwing their urine.”
