The D.C. Council bill could prohibit solitary confinement in D.C.’s jails and youth detention facilities and would also impose stricter limits on the D.C. jail’s use of so-called “safe cells,” a form of solitary confinement that jail officials say is designed to prevent self-harm, but which advocates, experts and people in the jail have called out for being unnecessarily punitive, reports the DCist. The proposal would prohibit D.C.’s corrections facilities from using solitary confinement for “any purpose, including discipline, safety, security, and administrative convenience,” according to the bill’s text.
However, it sets out an exception for cases where a person detained in a D.C. facility is suspected of having an infectious disease transmissible through droplets or the air — like COVID-19 or tuberculosis. Meanwhile, advocates have alleged that people in safe cells are denied access to water and legal phone calls. They have also said that people in safe cells live in filthy conditions, and their lights are left on 24 hours a day.