Bring incarcerated D.C. citizens home

I want to eliminate mass incarceration, but this is a prison that must be built

The D.C. jail’s rehabilitation programs should be offered to all of the district’s incarcerated citizens

This post focuses on one of three DC-reform priorities to be discussed at an online teach-in to be hosted by the district’s attorney general at 5:30 p.m. ET Sept. 14. Register here.

The Black Lives Matter movement is calling for the end of incarceration. And as much as or more than anyone, I don’t want to see any more lives put on hold, like mine has been for 25 years — or, worse yet, destroyed because they are warehoused away from family and friends with little stimulation or development. But…I want a new prison to be built, by D.C. for D.C. residents. Here’s why.

The old D.C. prison in Lorton, VA

There are currently more than 1,800 people in the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections, mostly awaiting trial, and another 4,100 (almost all Black) serving sentences in federal Bureau of Prisons facilities — known for being particularly harsh environments. (In fact, the district’s incarceration rate is higher than any state in the nation — and any country.) Why are we all held in federal prisons? Many D.C. residents don’t know that the district closed its only prison in 2002. Instead, D.C. contracts with the feds…