Update: Joel Caston’s attorney James Zeigler tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the U.S. Parole Commission says it will not transfer Caston. “Thank you to everyone who called and voiced your support on Joel’s behalf,” Zeigler wrote. “Everyone is extremely relieved and grateful.”

Original: 

Ward 7 ANC Commissioner Joel Caston, who won a historic election in June and became the first incarcerated D.C. resident to hold an ANC commission seat, could be transferred from the D.C. Jail to a federal prison as soon as Wednesday, according to his attorney and D.C. officials.

D.C. councilmembers, including Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, have criticized the potential move, with Allen posting to Facebook that it is “outrageous & insulting to every DC resident” and Cheh saying it’s “completely unacceptable.”

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is set to transfer 400 incarcerated D.C. Jail residents out of the District to a federal prison in Pennsylvania. The agency made the decision after it conducted a surprise inspection of the D.C. Jail and found “systemic failures” and unacceptable conditions. However, it’s currently unclear whether Caston’s transfer is connected to the broader USMS transfers, which were scheduled to begin on Monday, according to the Washington Post.

“We don’t have a clear understanding with certainty about where it’s coming from and why it’s being done,” says James Zeigler, the founder and executive director of the Second Look Project and an attorney for Caston.

Caston is scheduled to testify on conditions at the jail at a D.C. Council hearing Wednesday — a hearing Allen called in response to the USMS transfers. But Caston will be unable to testify if he is sent away from the District.

Zeigler says Caston and his legal team received little to no advance notice that he would be transferred, but they initially heard on Monday that Caston was on the USMS list of people to be moved to federal prison. Caston’s lawyers initially thought that may have been a clerical error, since Caston is being held in the Correctional Treatment Facility, a building adjacent to the D.C. Jail that the USMS said it would not be transferring people out of.

Caston is scheduled to be released on parole on Dec. 22. Zeigler says they heard later Monday evening that the imminent release date meant officials needed to send Caston back to a Bureau of Prisons facility to process his paperwork. Zeigler says this is unnecessary.

“To be clear, there’s no substantive reason why the parole commission or various federal agencies couldn’t release him if he’s in [D.C. Department of Corrections custody],” Zeigler said, because federal agencies can do the necessary paperwork no matter where Caston is incarcerated.

Neither the USMS or the U.S. Parole Commission returned a request for comment.

No matter the reason, Zeigler says “the process of transferring [Caston] back [to federal prison] will be a lengthy, onerous and unpleasant one for him … and it is for no apparent or conceivable purpose other than the arbitrary exercise of rules and authority by federal officials.”

In addition, Zeigler says, Caston is also awaiting a D.C. Superior Court decision about whether he will be released even earlier through D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA), a law that allows D.C. residents who were convicted of crimes when they were young to petition for early release. Zeigler says he hasn’t heard of anyone else in the history of the IRAA law being transferred out of D.C. Department of Corrections custody while they were awaiting a decision.

Caston’s lawyers do not yet have confirmation on exactly where Caston will be sent, but Zeigler says the process of being transferred to a federal prison can take weeks — and it could involve a quarantine period because of COVID-19 protocols. For Caston, a transfer would almost certainly “directly and meaningfully prevent him from carrying out his duties” as an ANC Commissioner, Zeigler adds.

“I think this is outrageous,” says Marc Schindler, the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, which advocates for alternatives to mass incarceration. Schindler has come to know Caston during his time at the jail. “I’m of course very concerned and troubled by the conditions in the [D.C. Jail]. Those are inexcusable. But taking someone away who is there to represent his constituents … is just inexcusable, and unjust.”

Schindler also finds the timing of the decision — right before Caston’s scheduled testimony on D.C. Jail conditions — troubling.

“The way this is being handled as it relates to Joel Caston just really reeks of suspicion about why somebody in his position, in the CTF, scheduled to testify, with a release date, would be on that list,” says Schindler. “He has a release date. Why not just release him?”

D.C. officials do not have the authority to control where many residents convicted of crimes serve their time. The District has not had a prison of its own since 2001 and the federal government took over many aspects of D.C.’s criminal justice system in the late ‘90s — which means many incarcerated D.C. residents are sent to federal prisons across the country, far from their families, and local D.C. officials have little authority to dictate their whereabouts.

Caston’s impending transfer, Schindler says, “speaks to the larger issue that we face in the District of not having the authority to make local decisions and being subject to these federal agencies.”

On Tuesday, Allen, who chairs the committee that performs oversight of the D.C. Jail and the city’s criminal justice system, took to Twitter to ask people to call the U.S. Parole Commission and the USMS to demand that Caston remain in the District.

“Join me in calling on the USPC and US Marshals to prevent Commissioner Caston’s transfer and grant his immediate release,” wrote Allen. “He is a valued member of our community & deserves to come home. This isn’t about safety, it’s about control from a federal overseer.”