Comments on: D.C. Jail’s Cell Doors Don’t Work—Leads To ‘Riot’ Last Month

By: ex jailer

ex jailer — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:16:22 +0000

This jail is a bomb waiting to explode. During my year of working there the cells never worked. I am surprised when the riot broke out that the E.R.T team was able to go in and take the jail back.I hope they have expanded the E.R.T team as well. Training is crucial in times like that night when the riot started. I am so blessed to be out of there but I have a lot of friends still stuck in that facility trying to work day by day. Keep your heads up and your eyes open in there. My prayesrs go out to you all.

By: Inmate Stabbed Inside The D.C. Jail; Broken Cell Door May Be Linked To Incident - City Desk - Washington City Paper

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:34:43 +0000

[...] incident follows another stabbing in November at the jail. It also highlights the still on-going issues with cell doors. Says one officer after this latest stabbing: "You cannot lock the inmate in the cell. When an [...]

By: Ex Jailer

Ex Jailer — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:43:07 +0000

First thing first, the problem with the cell doors are not new, there have been problems with them for years. For some odd reason a lot of the misguided politicians think that when they lockup a criminal, all of sudden, they have a new outlook and they immediately stop their criminal behavoir, fat chance, a lot of the crinimals continously tamper with and break and defeat the doors locking mechanism either so that they can continue their criminal behavior ie. assault other prisoners or staff. Trying to negotiate with prisoners in the DC system is a farce, because one thing DC finest criminals know, in the District of Columbia unlike any other juridiction in the World, there is little to no chance they will be criminally charge for assaulting staff, damaging property or for other disruptive behavior at the jail. In all my 20 plus years working in DC priviledge prison system, the DC Legal System is more likely to file criminal charges aganist an Officer for defending him/her self than an inmate, the inmates know this, I bet when they are sent to Virgina, they don't do it.

Then when all else fail, The District have several ambulance chasers/lawyers who consistently file suits against the DC Gov't for some perceive prison or in a majority of instance a made up violation because they know the District will pay. Until the District stop codling these criminals, bring criminal charges more often and let the Jailers do their job, the problem will only escalate until one of our keepers who walk the most deadyliest beat in the criminal justice system is seriously injuried or killed and maybe then someone will wake up. I pray that they wakeup sooner.