The entrance to the Correctional Treatment Facility.

Tyrone Turner / WAMU

Two controversial right-wing members of Congress were allowed by Mayor Muriel Bowser to visit the D.C. Jail on Thursday evening, joining a pre-scheduled tour by members of the D.C. Council.

But while the local lawmakers focused their visit on the wing of the jail where a U.S. Marshals Service inspection recently identified a number of significant issues — which could lead to the transfer of 400 people to a federal facility in Pennsylvania — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) also visited with dozens of accused Jan. 6 insurrectionists being held pending trial in a separate part of the jail.

Greene — a fervent support of former president Donald Trump who has said the Jan. 6 insurrection was in line with the Declaration of Independence — compared the jail to a “prisoner of war” camp after her visit. One local lawmaker who organized the tour, meanwhile, says Greene’s interest in conditions at the aging jail seem largely shaped by politics.

“Clearly there is an ulterior motive focused on Jan. 6,” says Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who organized the tour and says he was surprised by the late additions. “I doubt they have a genuine interest in the D.C. residents at the jail.”

The last-minute visit by Greene and Gohmert was prompted when they visited Bowser’s office at the Wilson Building earlier in the day, delivering a letter demanding access to the so-called “Patriot Wing” of the D.C. Jail, saying that as members of Congress it was their constitutional duty to oversee how the city spends taxpayer dollars. The two have in the past demanded access to the facility, going so far as to show up and try to walk in. (Their most recent attempt was on Wednesday.)

Greene, Gohmert, and other right-wing members of the House of Representatives have alleged that the Jan. 6 defendants being held in the D.C. Jail — some 40 in all — are actually political prisoners and have been subjected to human and civil rights violations. In October, a federal judge overseeing some of the cases called on the Department of Justice to investigate conditions at the jail, and later found the director of the D.C. Department of Corrections and the warden of the jail in contempt of court for failing to turn over documents related to the medical treatment of one of the Jan. 6 defendants.

An inspection by the U.S. Marshals Service in late October identified a range of “systemic failures” and poor conditions at the jail, prompting a move to transfer 400 detainees — almost a third of the jail’s population — to a federal facility in Pennsylvania. But that inspection focused on the Central Detention Facility, the older and more populated wing of the jail. The Correctional Treatment Facility, a newer portion where all the Jan. 6 defendants are held, was found to have conditions that are “largely appropriate and consistent with federal detention standards.” Those defendants are not among the group that will be transferred to Pennsylvania.

Still, on Wednesday U.S. Judge Royce Lamberth ordered that one alleged Jan. 6  participant in CTF be moved to a detention facility in Alexandria over concerns related to his medical condition and the jail’s ability to manage it.

Six members of the D.C. Council, led by Allen, were scheduled to visit the jail on Thursday evening to see conditions for themselves in the wake of the Marshals report. Allen says that at the last minute Greene and a coterie of her staffers piggybacked on the tour, having been told by Bowser’s office they could join the local lawmakers. Gohmert came later.

“Why not let them in? It would send an entirely wrong message to say there is something to hide at the D.C. Jail,” said Bowser on Friday. “This is an important issue. We want people who have to be in the jail to be treated humanely, to have safe conditions, to have access to their lawyers, and to go to trial. We hold ourselves to a very high standard as well.”

In an interview, Allen says he wanted to get a firsthand look at conditions at CDF, though he concedes that a planned visit wouldn’t offer lawmakers the best look at daily life in the facility. Still, he says CDF — which is 40 years old — is showing its age.

“It’s not in great shape. The smell of smoke was all around. There were points where I could smell marijuana, so contraband has gotten in,” he says. “There were portions where there is programming taking place where it is a very open space where people are able to talk and you can see positive things. But you can go to the maximum security wing and it’s an entirely different picture.”

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who was also on the tour, says it was too crowded to be of much use to him. He says that Greene did ask some questions about education and programming, but “there was no conversation from her that had to do with the Marshals inspection.” Christina Henderson (I-At Large) says Greene did try to engage some of the jail residents in conversation. Multiple members of the tour also say that Greene did not undergo a security screening to enter the jail, and at certain points her and her staff refused to follow COVID-19 protocols, including keeping their masks on over their noses and mouths (Greene has been fined $48,000 for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor).

At some point, Greene, her entourage of staffers, and Gohmert split off from the larger group and made their way to the unit in CTF where the Jan. 6 defendants are being held. She tweeted that she joined them in their nightly singing of the national anthem, which happens at 9 p.m. That indicates that she was in the jail longer than the local lawmakers, who say their tour lasted roughly an hour.

Greene, who wasn’t immediately available for an interview, took to Twitter earlier this morning to share her perceptions. “I’ve never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night,” she said. “While some were shown to us in seemingly beneficial programs, others were in tortuous lockdown. I’ll never forget hearing their screams.”

She also described visiting the Jan. 6 defendants, whom she called “forgotten & hopeless.”

“It was like walking into a prisoner of war camp and seeing men whose eyes can’t believe someone had made it in to see them. They are suffering greatly,” she said. “Virtually no medical care, very poor food quality, and being put through re-education which most of them are rejecting.”

Local attorneys and advocates have said that problems at the D.C. Jail are longstanding, and the facility is in desperate need of replacement. (Others want to do away with a jail altogether.) And while many welcome a bright spotlight on the facility and the city’s management of it, they say that Greene and other Republicans have only become interested because of the political leanings and race of the Jan. 6 defendants. (An overwhelming majority of D.C. residents in the jail and criminal justice system more broadly are Black; the Jan. 6 defendants are largely white.)

“I don’t think they have any interest in the D.C. Jail. I think they had their own motives,” says Allen on Greene and Gohmert’s visit.

“If their focus is on the Jan. 6 prisoners, then that’s a distraction on conditions at the jail. It becomes all about Jan. 6. If one wants to improve conditions, don’t talk about the allegedly wrongfully held patriots because that is a different conversation,” says Mendelson, adding that he wonders whether Greene and Gohmert have visited jails and prisons in their own states. (Poor conditions have been found at facilities in Georgia and Texas.)

Henderson says that she did witness conditions that troubled her, including a wild swing in temperature from floor to floor and the smell of marijuana, indicating the presence of contraband. But while she says that some of the wings they toured were loud, she thinks Greene’s descriptions of them are  overblown. Henderson also says that Greene and Gohmert’s concerns around conditions at the D.C. Jail could apply to many facilities across the country.

“I don’t know how many different jails she has visited in her life. But I would say the vast majority of jails across the county are not built for rehabilitation,” she says.

In addition to longstanding and persistent concerns about inhumane treatment and poor conditions in the D.C. Jail, local advocates also have concerns about USP Lewisburg, the federal prison where the U.S. Marshals Service is slated to send people in its custody (Federal public defenders have filed multiple emergency motions trying to stop some of the transfers.) In particular, people with experience working with residents at Lewisburg say that access to legal calls and communication with family will be far more restricted at the federal facility, which is located a nearly four-hour drive from the District.

“One thing that is markedly better in the DC DOC than in the [Bureau of Prisons] is access to counsel,” attorney James Zeigler told DCist/WAMU earlier this week. At the D.C. Jail, he says, lawyers can generally arrange legal calls within a day or go see their clients in person. In federal prisons, “phone calls are severely restricted,” he said.

On Twitter, attorney and prisoner rights advocate Deborah Golden noted that if Greene has interest in jails and prisons, she could focus on the federal system. “I welcome everyone to the fight to [stop solitary confinement,]” wrote Golden. “Wait until you learn about the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which you have direct power over. Happy to talk to you about it any time.”

Greene said that her office would issue a “full report” on their visit to the D.C. Jail. Next week, Allen is holding a public oversight roundtable on conditions at the facility.

But Patrice Sulton, the executive director of D.C. Justice Lab, an organization that advocates for and studies criminal justice reform in the city, says it’s clear to her that the council’s oversight of the jail has thus far been ineffective. In addition to ending restrictive housing at the jail and ensuring incarcerated peoples’ medical needs are met, Sulton says the council should move this year to institute independent oversight.

“The fact is that the council does not have the capacity or expertise to oversee the jail,” says Sulton. “It should immediately provide for independent oversight.”

Jenny Gathright contributed reporting.

Filed Under: d.c. jail, january 6, marjorie taylor greene,