The D.C. Department of Corrections would be required to set inmates free within hours of a court order under legislation being considered by the D.C. Council — a measure intended to eliminate overdetentions that have provoked two class-action lawsuits.
The bill, introduced at the request of Mayor Adrian Fenty, demands that the Corrections Department set inmates free “whenever so directed by a valid order of any court,” no matter the time of day or night. If public transportation from the D.C. Jail is not available, the bill requires the department to help the prisoners find a way home.
The District has been sued twice in recent years for overdetaining thousands of inmates for days, weeks and months at a time.
The release process often extends well into the night, past the 10 p.m. curfew; inmates who remain are returned to the general population, searched and then sometimes lost in the system or disregarded.
“It sounds like an awfully simple issue that ought not to have caused a problem, but it has, and it’s big,” said Peter Nickels, Fenty’s general counsel. “Inmates ought not to be confined a moment longer than it takes to process them.”
But opening the doors in the middle of the night will not address the problem of weeks-long overdetention or unjustified strip searches, responded Council Member Phil Mendelson, chair of the public safety committee.
“The curfew was put in there because of the numerous complaints regarding prisoners being released late at night,” Mendelson said. “If you think about it, a lot of inmates have no place to go. What are you going to do with them if you release them at midnight?”
Frank Zampatori, who lives a block from the jail, agreed.
“I’m not so concerned about them coming through the neighborhood,” he said. “But I would be concerned about where they’re going to go, especially if it’s winter time. The mayor’s people have not thought this through.”
The first class-action suit against the city was settled in January 2006 for $12 million. The problems continued, and a second suit followed this year.
In certifying the most recent case as class action, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote March 27 that “history insists on repeating itself.”
“If the past is prologue,” Lamberth wrote, “then the result here must be predictable.”
