When making an overseas trip, a jail isn’t usually at the top of your sightseeing list.
But when a group of Danish attorneys visited the Washington area earlier this month, they headed straight to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
Lt. Steve Elbert gave the 36 criminal defense attorneys a tour of the facility and answered questions about local jails in the United States.
“They were interested in whether we differentiate between pretrial and convicted inmates and our efforts on easing re-entry,” said Elbert, who is a spokesman for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
Elbert said the president of the Danish National Association of Defence Lawyers called the sheriff’s office about getting a tour after reading about the jail online.
The attorneys talked with Fairfax officials about differences between jails in Denmark and the United States.
The Fairfax facility, which has an average daily population of more than 1,200 inmates, is three times larger than the average detention center in Denmark, Elbert said.
The groups talked about how each country handles the booking process, parole, solitary confinement, visits, work programs and gangs.
They found some differences: Segregation isn’t used as punishment in Denmark, and inmates there aren’t generally separated from visitors by a screen. But the Danish lawyers said jails there likely have larger problems with drugs and contraband, the sheriff’s office said.
Elbert said visits such as the one by the attorneys are useful to those who work in the justice system on both continents.
“It is always good to learn different ways of supervising inmates,” he said. The jail always aims to follow the best protocols, he said, but “it’s good to gather more knowledge and have open eyes.”
This week, a group from Russia is slated to tour the facility.
