A few dozen Home Republicans, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), and two Democrats toured the D.C. jail Friday to examine the circumstances underneath which 20 males charged within the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot are being held, and the 2 events emerged with sharply completely different variations of what they noticed.
Washington, D.C
Lawmakers tour D.C. jail to investigate treatment of Jan. 6 defendants
The lawmakers met with among the defendants, 17 of whom have been charged or convicted of assaulting cops, and “they instructed us tales,” Greene mentioned afterward.
Greene and Republicans from the Home Committee on Oversight and Accountability organized the jail tour due to complaints from Jan. 6 defendants and their households, a few of whom maintain a nightly vigil outdoors the enormous brick constructing on D Avenue Southeast. Greene mentioned among the many allegations she heard had been, “Tales of being denied medical therapy, tales of assault, tales of being threatened with rape.”
The 2 Democrats who joined the tour mentioned the jail circumstances had been unremarkable. They mentioned jails should not speculated to be luxurious resorts, and that the tour was a political stunt. Democrats have lengthy accused Greene and Republicans of deceptive the general public in regards to the mistreatment of Jan. 6 defendants in jail.
D.C. jail spokeswoman Keena Blackmon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“So far as I’m involved, this positively handed with flying colours,” mentioned Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.), “because it associated as to if this can be a humane existence.” Crockett, a former public defender and civil rights legal professional within the Dallas space, mentioned the jails she’d visited in Texas and Arkansas had been far worse.
“Y’all know what it’s,” Crockett mentioned. “It’s politics. It’s political theater. And it’s unhappy as a result of there’s an actual dialog that we actually do must have on this nation round policing and round jail circumstances. However this ain’t it.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who additionally visited, mentioned there was a full medical group accessible 24 hours a day within the jail and that the claims of various therapy for the Jan. 6 defendants was “fully a lie.” He mentioned he was “stunned at how a lot open house there was, they had been capable of work together freely with members of Congress.”
Garcia mentioned every of the defendants have two pc tablets, one for leisure and one for authorized work, can textual content their households and phone their attorneys each time they need. “They’re being handled very pretty and appropriately,” Garcia mentioned.
“The outrageous declare that the January 6 defendants are political prisoners and have been subjected to inferior therapy is a fraud,” Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) mentioned in an announcement earlier than the tour. Each Crockett and Raskin famous that the Jan. 6 defendants are being held within the newer Correctional Remedy Facility reasonably than the older Central Detention Facility.
“The largely Black and Brown inmates housed within the dilapidated and inferior Central Detention Facility are desperate to get moved into the extra fashionable, spacious and cozy [Correctional] Remedy Facility the place the January 6 defendants and convicts now reside,” mentioned Raskin, who didn’t attend the tour Friday.
Deficiencies contained in the D.C. jail turned a nationwide story in November 2021, when the U.S. Marshals Service despatched a letter to town’s corrections division detailing mistreatment of detainees and saying plans to switch about 400 folks dealing with federal prices to a jail in Lewisburg, Pa. The letter was despatched amid rising complaints from Jan. 6 defendants held within the Correctional Remedy Facility, however the Marshals discovered the punitive denial of meals and water and unsanitary dwelling circumstances on the older Central Detention Facility, reasonably than the place the Jan. 6 defendants had been being held.
On the time, council members, attorneys and activists mentioned that they had been attempting to alert D.C. officers of breakdowns on the jail for years, if not a long time. They expressed frustration that it took a federal company intervening — after complaints from largely White inmates — to encourage vital motion from town.
“I’m deeply disturbed that we solely have consideration now that the January 6 insurrectionists carried consideration to this subject,” mentioned D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) at a listening to that month.
Since then, the top of the corrections division has instructed town council that he carried out particular corrective motion plans to handle the considerations — with a give attention to resolving points in meals service, cleanliness, grievance procedures and employees coaching. A legislation scheduled to enter impact in Might would increase oversight of the ability.
Greene mentioned that the jail was cleaner than when she visited in 2021 and components of the within had been freshly painted, and that the Jan. 6 defendants had been now allowed out of their cells. However she was adamant, “There’s a transparent distinction in how [Jan. 6 defendants] are handled. It’s a two-tiered justice system.” She mentioned the non-Jan. 6 prisoners have entry to instructional packages and alternatives that Jan. 6 defendants don’t.