They have been commonplace — and illegal Nearly 150 inmates were released from the D.C. Jail in the late-night or early-morning hours during the first two months of the year despite a District law barring overnight exits into the Capitol Hill East neighborhood.
The D.C. Council on Tuesday voted to legalize such releases — only if the inmates have a place to go and a way to get there. The bill, adopted on a 10-3 vote, runs contrary to an opinion from Attorney General Peter Nickles declaring the measure both unconstitutional and one that will expose the District to costly lawsuits.
“They need housing,” at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, who drafted the bill, said of inmates. “They need access to counseling. They need access to government agencies, and none of that’s open late at night.”
Under the bill, inmates may not leave the jail in the middle of the night unless they have transportation out of Hill East, access to a home or shelter, weather-appropriate clothes “typical of street clothing worn by citizens in public,” and a seven-day supply of any medications they have been prescribed.
Although overnight release is prohibited under D.C. law, the Department of Corrections does it anyway and may continue to, Nickles suggested Tuesday.
“We will not violate the Constitution of the United States,” he said.
Last March, Nickles declared the District’s existing prohibition unconstitutional. The number of overnight releases soared from 14 in January and February 2009 to 144 during the first two months of this year, including three during the February blizzards.
Mendelson’s bill is “fatally defective,” as it violates an inmate’s due process rights and the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, Nickles contends.
The District has lost millions in lawsuits, $12 million in 2005 alone, for “over-detention.” The continuing threat of liability, along with the constitutional questions, cost the bill the support of Councilman David Catania.
“That is something that is indivisible from our rights as individuals,” Catania said. “The state cannot hold us longer than the court says.”
Mendelson argued the Fenty administration is fighting the bill because it will not, or cannot, meet the 10 p.m. deadline to process an inmate’s paperwork.
The issue of late-night release is a double-edged sword, said Ron Moten, who works with ex-offenders and recently started the OtherSide Magazine. Some inmates want a night’s rest and a meal before release, he said, and others want out.
“You stay in there one more day,” Moten said, “it might mean a knife in you.”
