Imagine your son was incarcerated, placed in the hole for over 18 months where he is locked down for 23hrs a day and all of the concern that comes with that alone.

Now, imagine receiving a call from another inmate stating that your son has been seriously injured by the guards, they’ve urinated all over his bed, taken all of his belongings and thew them away and he needs help.

If that isn’t enough to send you into a panic, a second call comes in from an attorney of another inmate stating that their client called them on behalf of your son because the guards have injured him badly and he needs medical care. Is your heart beating fast yet?

A third call comes in from a concerned inside source at the jail stating someone needs to see your son as soon as possible because the guards have cut him badly and he needs help. They say they believe it’s all over this newspaper article that was in the Washington Post on January 29, 2016 because this article exposes the inhumane practice of placing human beings in solitary confinement for long periods of time and the psychological effects it can have on the inmates.

By now, your mind is in a panic and you realize this is no movie, it’s real life…YOUR REAL LIFE and your heart is about to beat out of your chest while tears race down your face. You only have a moment to feel this emotion because phone calls must be made, something has to be done. Your son may be a criminal in the eyes of the law but that is still your baby, your flesh and blood and he needs you!

This is what my family is going through right now as my mom, received these calls successively Friday afternoon regarding my brother who is incarcerated in the DC Correctional Facility where this isn’t the first of these types of incidents. In fact these are the stories you rarely hear about because they get swept under the rug, covered up and/or no one wants to help a “criminal” as if they deserve cruel and inhumane treatment. 

Our family immediately jumped into crisis mode and despite the evening hour on a Friday night, began making phone calls to The Mayor’s office, Internal affairs, The Washington Post, The National Action Network DC Chapter, etc…not sure if we would reach anyone due to it being the weekend. Surprisingly, we began receiving phone calls back and help began to manifest. 

My mom and I went to see my brother in a video visit and he didn’t look good. They bandaged his arm up in two places but you could see it bleeding through the bandages.. He can’t feel his fingers in his hand. He asked one Lieutenant to speak to someone in Mental and another officer came out of nowhere and beat him repeatedly with some sort of metal object that opened severe wounds in his arm. The officer urinated all over his bed and removed all of his belongings from his cell and trashed them. This is a violation of my brother’s constitutional rights. Ironically, these aren’t the only rights being violated. My brother was shot in DC Jail about 11yrs ago and they twisted that story to turn it into a conspiracy against the system. He should not be back in DC Jail period. The guards have placed his life in danger on many levels by spreading false rumors to the other inmates that my brother is a snitch. They have beat on my brother several times before but this is the worse by far. My brother is a pretrial inmate, yet he has been in lock down since returning to the jail almost two years ago. My brother has to be moved from this jail for his safety.

Please check out the Rights of Inmates to fully understand what should and shouldn’t be taking place inside the jail.

No one thinks that their loved one would be harmed by the very people who are supposed to be protecting them but our eyes have been opened to Police Brutality in a major way over the last few years. It breaks your heart to know that the assault and torture that goes on behind those walls is basically being ignored or patched with band-aids while the blood of these inmates cry out from behind the wall. It has long become an epidemic of torture based on all of these articles listed here citing different incidents brought out in the media. Yet, the DC Torture Chamber of Hell still stands…barely, due to the horrific physical conditions of this building which I include in the cruel treatment of humans.

The torture reached a pivotal moment when a group of mothers came together to bring awareness to the situation. They created a a group called MUST Mothers United to Stop Torture and they began to fight for their son’s lives based on this article titled, D.C. Inmates ‘Tortured,’ Mothers Say. Washington Post. 25 October 2005.

We agree with this mother’s statement in the above mentioned article; “Sabrina Wynn, testifying at a D.C. Council hearing on behalf of six mothers whose sons are jailed, called on the District to investigate the allegations and fire any corrections officers who are found to be responsible.

“If dogs were mistreated as our sons have been, those responsible would be prosecuted for animal cruelty,” said Wynn, whose testimony came in a day-long hearing by the council’s Judiciary Committee into the operations of the Department of Corrections.”

I wrote this blog to save my brother’s life and to shed a light on what goes on in the darkness behind the walls of the DC Correctional Facility which does not embody correction in the form of reform but punishment, cruel and unjust punishment that is synonymous with torture. 

“Suicide, self-harm and segregation have long had a close relationship at the District jail. Nearly 60 percent of the jail’s 49 suicide attempts in 2013 occurred in a segregation unit, a Department of Corrections report said. “Inmates in segregation units are at a higher risk” of suicide, the report stated.”-The Washington Post 1/29/2016

DC Jail is Killing our loved ones slowly and we MUST do something about it! 

Please call Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and demand an investigation into the violation of inmate rights in the DC Correctional Facility. This building needs to be bulldozed and rebuilt and most of the staff properly trained or replaced.

John A. Wilson Building

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

Phone: (202) 727-2643

or

Just click here to sign our petition Stop the Torture of DC Inmates. Thank you in advance, your support will save lives.