A disturbance at the Washington, D.C., jail last month was more violent than officials initially indicated, and the unit where inmates rebelled was so damaged that it remained closed for almost a month, reports the city’s Post. In the hours after the unrest, officials said jail operations had returned to normal. But D.C. Department of Corrections Director Devon Brown now acknowledges that the SW-2 unit where the incident occurred was unusable and that the 154 inmates housed in it were moved to other areas of the jail. On Thursday, Brown said, 92 inmates returned to the unit.
“The press release said the essence of what occurred. It was not intended to give a minute, detailed explanation of what took place,” said Brown, who declined to estimate the cost of repairs. “I wasn’t going to give you a blow-by-blow account of what happened.” It is still unclear how severely the unit was damaged in the June 22 disturbance. Brown said the damage was mostly limited to broken light fixtures. But D.C. City Administrator Dan Tangherlini said he was told that three to five cell-door locks, lights and other fixtures were broken. Inmates in the unit said the area looked like a war scene.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071901743.html