Seven inmates in the D.C. Jail have filed suit against Mayor Anthony A. Williams and the director of the Department of Corrections, claiming that the facility is dangerous and overcrowded.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court, seeks to force Mr. Williams and S. Elwood York Jr., interim director of the Department of Corrections, to obey a city law that requires a reduction in the number of inmates at the jail.
“We are bringing [the suit] on behalf of five men and two women,” said Philip Fornaci, executive director of D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project and co-counsel in the lawsuit. “We are asking the mayor to simply obey the law and set a limit on the number of inmates that can be held at the jail.”
Mr. Fornaci said the Williams administration has ignored the D.C. Jail Improvement Act, which authorized a consultant to determine the maximum inmate population in 2002. Corrections officials treat inmates “like animals” because of overcrowding, he said.
D.C. Council members — who have been at odds with the administration over funding for the jail — rebuffed Mr. Fornaci’s request that they join the lawsuit as plaintiffs, the attorney said.
“There was no interest in the council in filing such a suit,” said Mr. Fornaci, who would not say which members he has approached.
Council member Kathleen Patterson, the Ward 3 Democrat who drafted the Jail Improvement Act, said of the lawsuit last week: “I absolutely understand the motivation for it.”
The 30-year-old D.C. Jail employs 687 guards to watch as many as 2,498 inmates a month, officials have said.
Last year, a consultant recommended the jail hold no more than 2,160 inmates a month. Most are pre-trial defendants awaiting hearings, and their numbers fluctuate as the courts deal with cases.
The two female plaintiffs named in the lawsuit — Georgene Greenfield and Terri Meade — outlined several of their concerns in a letter to The Washington Times this month. Both complained about small food portions and sporadic medical care.
Mr. York said he had not seen the suit, adding that the “mayor will set a cap sometime soon.”
Williams spokesman Vincent Morris said he also had not seen the suit.
“There is not much we can say about it because it’s in litigation,” Mr. Morris said. “I know a lot of things the inmates are complaining about are things that the mayor is trying to fix by increasing funds to the Corrections Department.”
Mr. Williams has called for an increase in the Corrections Department’s budget from $121 million this year to $142 million in fiscal 2006. The council cut his proposal to $138 million.
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