By C1 Staff
WASHINGTON D.C. — As temperatures rise to triple digits across the United States, issues inside a poorly-ventilated D.C. jail are bringing complaints from corrections officers and inmates.
Last week, Lester Irby, 70, who was awaiting trial on two assault charges, collapsed of an apparent stroke in the facility on July 14 and died at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
The Washington Post reports that Irby’s daughter said he had complained of the heat and believes that the adverse conditions contributed to his death. A jail spokeswoman said there has been “no medical report or initial medical assessment indicating a correlation between elevated temperatures and this inmate’s death.” The results from the autopsy are still pending.
Built in 1972 to replace another jail, keeping the facility cool dates back years. Officials are putting the blame on old or faulty ducts that do not adequately move the cool air from air conditioners. They are being cleaned to improve efficiency.
Extra ice is being distributed, inmates can wear shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, and industrial fans have been put in the common areas. Correctional officers can wear light-colored shirts and are being given extra breaks.
Officials and unions across D.C. agree that the jail is obsolete and a new one is needed. Currently, there is no money in the budget to build a new facility, but D.C Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie, chairman of the public safety committee, said he has started the funding process, and that the repairs being made now are “a temporary fix, at best.”
Sgt. John Rosser, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police labor committee representing correctional officers, told The Post the union is preparing to file a formal complaint with the District by the end of this week. Officers are exhausted and hot, spreading themselves thin escorting inmates to the hospital who are overcome by heat, Rosser told the publication.
Deborah Golden, director of the Prisoner’s Project for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said her office has a steady stream of complaints from inmates housed at the facility.
The advocacy group is considering a lawsuit, among other actions. “We know it’s not a situation where they can just fix it, because the jail is 40 years old,” she said. “But in the meantime, we have to constitutionally house the people who are there.”
The facility houses nearly 1,300 inmates serving sentences for misdemeanor offenses or awaiting trail or transfer to federal prisons.