D.C. Witness Exclusive: Increase in Stabbings Only Part of Inmate Safety Problem at DC Jail

By Jeff Levine - July 25, 2024
Court | Featured | stabbing | Suspects | Victims |

Frustration about jail security boiled over during a hearing on June 25 in the DC Superior Court. 

Arguing for his client’s immediate release under an emergency motion, Public Defender Jason Tulley told DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun, “The DC Jail is horrible!” 

Tulley said that murder suspect Jahi Settles, 23, is forced to live under conditions that violate constitutional provisions against cruel and unusual punishment.

According to Tulley’s June 24 motion, “People incarcerated at the DC Jail report that the jail is more dangerous than ever and the people stuck inside are in constant fear for their lives.”

The filing catalogs a litany of abuses at the jail that critics say has persisted even though the prison was put into federal receivership between 1995 and 2000.

One of the biggest measures are stabbings that took place at the DC Jail. 

A review of  D.C. Witness data as well as statistics from the DC Department of Corrections show that inmate stabbing attacks increased by 38.46 percent between 2022 and 2023, including one fatality.  D.C. Witness counted an additional fatality in 2022 beyond the information supplied by the jail which has not been factored into the percentage increase.

Sources:  DC Department of Corrections, D.C. Witness

In a jailhouse attack, Mussay Rezene, 31, is accused of fatally stabbing fellow inmate Darrow Johnson, 30, in August of 2023.  Security footage allegedly shows Rezene acting aggressively toward the victim during a confrontation after which he died from wounds to the back of his head and skull. 

Earlier, Rezene was convicted of fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Marcel Jackson, 37, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing a cellmate by blunt force trauma after the pair ingested PCP in May of 2022. Jackson also pleaded guilty to manslaughter in another case. 

D.C. Witness data for DC Jail stabbing prosecutions shows a big jump from 2020 to 2023 continuing in the current year.Overall,there are 31 total stabbing victims whose cases have resulted in charges filed between 2020 and April of this year.

Source: D.C. Witness: A case may have multiple defendants.

According to D.C. Witness data, there have been 10 stabbings prosecutions in the DC Jail so far this year, the most recent on April 5.

“With over 20 percent of our population associated with groups or crews that present security concerns and approximately 35 percent of our population under ‘keep separate’ orders due to conflicts with other residents, our safety and security environment is complex and ever-changing,” said the DC Department of Corrections in a statement provided to D.C. Witness. “DOC is also continually evaluating and adopting new strategies and technologies to improve contraband detection.” 

However, the motion Tulley filed says otherwise.

“The DOC has continued to show its utter disregard for the safety and humanity of the people held at the DC Jail,” according to the motion. 

One of the examples Tulley cites are so-called “Safe Cells” that he says amount to solitary confinement without running water.  “Oftentimes, the ‘Safe Cell’ is soiled with the feces and bodily fluids of prior occupants of the cell. People are left languishing in the cell for days, if not weeks,” says Tulley.

The DC Jail, according to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) website, has a capacity of 2,164 prisoners in what’s known as the Central Detention Facility (CDF).  

“Throughout the history of the DC Jail, there have been bouts of overcrowding which spurred the building of the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF),” says the MPD.  The CTF with a capacity of 1,500 is considered a medium-to-minimum security environment where all female inmates are housed.

According to the DOC, the census at the CDF as of June 28 was 1,328, while there are 627 people housed in the CTF, both units operating well below capacity at the moment.

However, DC Jail operations have long been under legal scrutiny.  A 1998 lawsuit raised issues at the jail dating to 1975. 

“[T] he district court found that the conditions did indeed violate the Constitution because of severe overcrowding, inadequate health care, unsanitary conditions, and unsafe facilities. The district court issued an injunction ordering the District of Columbia to improve the conditions for inmates,” according to a case summary from the Court Listener project.

An appellate judge hearing the case said, “The jail’s lack of compliance borders on bad faith.”

In 2021, the US Marshals Service determined after an inspection that DC Jail conditions “do not meet the minimum standards of confinement as prescribed by the Federal Performance-Based Detention Standards.”  

Based on that review, the marshals removed 400 detainees in their custody from the facility. 

Last April, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee filed another suit against the jail for allegedly denying inmates adequate health care as required by law. 

Kristen McGough, one of the attorneys arguing the suit, says there is a connection between violence and health care problems at the jail in the sense that it shows an overall lack of operational accountability, good management and adequate staffing. 

One of the biggest reform hurdles is that those in jail are stigmatized even though many have not been convicted, says McGough. 

“Everyone should be able to get the basic medical care they need,” McGough tells D.C. Witness.  “They should be able to serve time with dignity.”  She says the lawsuit is in the early stages of mediation but there are “good signs.” 

D.C. Witness reached out to the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Committee which represents corrections workers at the jail for comment but has not received a response before publication.  

“In many ways the jail environment is a mirror of the community’s landscape, requiring vigilant efforts to maintain residents and staff safety,” the DOC said.