Update, March 15, 4:45 p.m.: D.C. Superior Court announced on Sunday that planned jury and non-jury trials would be postponed for the time being, while those in progress would continue. Additionally, any person summoned for jury duty between Mar. 16-27 should not go to the courthouse.

All eviction proceedings will also be put on hold, the D.C. Housing Authority announced. The agency serves as the landlord for all residents of public housing in the city and also administers federal and local housing voucher programs. The D.C. Council is expected to vote Tuesday on an emergency bill that would halt evictions and utility cutoffs for all renters in the city.

Update, March 14, 6:45 p.m.: The D.C. Department of Corrections announced on Saturday that it would be suspending all in-person visits, programming, and volunteer activities in the D.C. Jail.

“While we recognize the significant impact this will have on inmates, their families, and loved ones, we are guided by medical experts who recommend social distancing measures as a proven method for preventing the spread of COVID-19,” said the department in a statement. The department said friends and families would still be able to use existing video visitation to speak with inmates.

Original:

Concerns over the spread of the coronavirus have prompted officials in the Washington region to take a number of steps to prevent transmission in courthouses and jails, ranging from a temporary suspension of some trials in Virginia to a full ban on visits to state penitentiaries in Maryland.

The steps, most taken in recent days, reflect the reality that courts crowded with defendants, attorneys and jurors and jails full of inmates and staff could quickly become breeding grounds for the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.

“As this virus moves through and as we see this epidemic take hold, for the vulnerable populations, which would include people in the jail [or] older residents serving on juries or older defendants, we need to make sure we’re thinking through the protections in place,” says D.C. Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the Council committee on public safety and the judiciary.

But implementing those protections can pose a distinct challenge, in part, because courts are an essential part of the justice system that is difficult to simply close down. More still, illnesses and disease can quickly spread among the confined spaces found in jails and prisons. And some defense attorneys say some courts and prisons aren’t yet doing enough.

U.S. District Courts in D.C., Maryland and Virginia have instituted a range of new restrictions. In Maryland, all federal trials have been postponed until April 24, largely over concerns of selecting juries — which could include people more susceptible to COVID-19 — for trials that would involve attorneys, judges and other court staff. And in Maryland state courts, any jury trials scheduled to start before April 3 are also being delayed.

In Virginia, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria announced that “all misdemeanor, traffic, and petty offense dockets” scheduled through April 30 are being postponed to later dates. D.C.’s District Court said it would remain in operation, though it would limit access to the courthouse to “judges, court staff, members of the media, and visitors with official business with the courts.”

Officials at D.C. Superior Court — which handles all of the city’s criminal and civil matters, and sees a regular flow of thousands of people on a daily basis — said they had finalized a “Pandemic Contingency Plan,” increased the number of hand sanitizers placed around the building, expanded telework options for employees, increased cleaning in “high contact” public areas more often, and are offering more flexibility to court-appointed guardians on when they have to make in-person visits.

But normal operations have so far continued, including trials and jury selection. (The court is federally funded, and not controlled by D.C.’s elected officials.) A court official tells WAMU that people more vulnerable to this new strain of coronavirus — like seniors and people with health conditions — will be able to ask to defer jury duty. But some defense attorneys say court proceedings should be delayed altogether.

“This morning D.C. Superior Court is running its criminal calendar like normal, meaning many courtrooms will be packed with misdemeanor defendants, all presumptively innocent and not detained. Many of these people will be those most vulnerable to COVID-19,” tweeted James Zeigler, a local defense attorney, on Friday. “Why?”

Those changes look to be happening starting next week. On Friday afternoon, Superior Court posted an update on its website indicating it would be limiting its functions.

“The Court is not closing, but will be changing its operations to postpone all non-urgent matters or to conduct them telephonically. The Court will keep the number of people, including jurors, who need to report to the courthouse to a minimum. Those with jury duty should call in the night before their service to to find out if they need to report,” says the court. “The Court will suspend evictions and foreclosures for a period of time.”

Civil liberties advocates more broadly say that during the public health emergency, police and prosecutors should exercise more discretion in who gets arrested and who simply gets a citation to avoid putting people in central lockups and then requiring they attend court hearings. In San Francisco, the public defender and district attorney agreed this week that people should not be held in jail for minor offenses.

Premal Dharia, director of the Defender Impact Initiative and a former public defender in D.C., says officials throughout the city’s criminal justice system have to act more quickly and aggressively to ensure everyone from inmates to court and prison staff are kept safe.

“All courts should be very quickly moving to release as many people as possible. I think that will create the safest environment for the most people,” she says. “The courts can also start to do things like not requiring people to come in for misdemeanor and traffic violations. The court can also be involved in changing the requirement for people who are released on conditions, who have to check in or come in for drug tests.”

Local officials have also started taking steps to prevent coronavirus outbreaks at jails and prisons, where the virus could spread easily — just as the swine flu did during a national outbreak in 2009.

“Correctional institutions pose special risks and considerations due to the nature of their unique environment. Inmates are in mandatory custody and options are limited for isolation and removal of ill persons from the environment,” wrote the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the time of swine flu.

On Thursday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan banned visits to state prisons as part of a broader set of policies meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus. He said the state would increase the use of video visitation in the meantime. The D.C. Department of Corrections, which runs the D.C. Jail’s two facilities — the Correctional Detention Facility and the Correctional Treatment Facility — says it has imposed a number of precautionary steps of its own this week.

“DOC has ordered additional cleaning and sanitation supplies, including protective gloves, masks, and clothing for staff. The department is also enhancing cleaning efforts especially in common areas,” the agency said in a statement. “We are also providing inmates, staff, and visitors with information on how to reduce the risk of illness.”

During a visit on Wednesday, two WAMU reporters witnessed staff wearing gloves and face masks, and heard repeated announcements over the public announcement system and from correctional officers encouraging inmates to wash their hands often or use hand sanitizer dispensers located around the facility. Some inmates seemed to be taking the advice seriously, even opting for elbow bumps in lieu of handshakes.

The agency also says it is screening staff and visitors for any possible COVID-19 symptoms, and if they are showing any, they will be denied entry to the D.C. Jail. The Department of Corrections operates an extensive video visitation system that could serve as an alternative to in-person visits.

As for inmates, the department says it will enhance screening at the D.C. Jail, which currently houses roughly 1,800 inmates divided between the Correctional Detention Facility and the Correctional Treatment Facility.

“When inmates arrive at DOC, we use a health questionnaire designed to identify persons with flu-like symptoms or who have traveled in areas affected by COVID-19. If an inmate were to be confirmed to have COVID-19, we have identified areas of the D.C. Jail where they can be housed separately from the rest of the population inmates during their treatment and recovery,” says the agency in its statement.

But in a letter sent to D.C. Deputy Mayor Kevin Donahue on Friday, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs said it worried that the Department of Corrections’ coronavirus plans have been “vague and not transparent.” The organization is urging officials to assess all inmates and release those who are most vulnerable, allow community supervision for people awaiting hearings for parole violations, and increase capacity at the jail to handle sick inmates.

The larger concern is the thousands of D.C. residents sent to federal prisons across the country since the city has no state prison system of its own. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request for comment, but earlier this week ABC News reported that a document sent by the agency to federal facilities “doesn’t provide adequate answers to combating the virus.” And on Friday, it announced a sweeping new measure: visits to inmates at 122 federal facilities would be halted for 30 days.

The Prison Policy Initiative says that prison inmates show higher indicators for certain conditions that make them susceptible to the coronavirus and that local and state officials should consider releasing medically fragile and older adults, reduce unnecessary parole and probation meetings, and do away with parole violations for minor violations.

“A lot of focus appropriately right now is on what the impacts could be on our health care system,” says Allen. “But we also need to be thinking about the impacts on our criminal justice system and making sure we don’t overwhelm that as well.”

This story first appeared on WAMU and has been updated to reflect that DOC has suspended in-person visits.