What you can find inside Washington, D.C.'s main correctional facility includes vermin, leaky roofs, and plumbing in disrepair. According to The Washington Post, when the jail was built 40 years ago, it was built for "an earlier era when suicide prevention, juvenile rehabilitation and preparation for inmate reentry into society weren't the priorities they are today." The correctional officers are reported as treating prisoners at risk of suicide in a misguided way, which resulted in four suicides over 10 months in 2012 and 2013, according to a report from the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs describes. The Washington Post further reported that the facility doesn't provide any educational opportunities beyond the GED and only allows video visits for many juvenile prisoners. Because of these and many more issues, the D.C. Prisoners' Rights Project at the Washington Lawyers' Committee is pushing for a completely new facility. The D.C. Council approved $1 million to the Department of Corrections for general renovations as well as the exploration for a new facility.
· Prisoners' rights advocates: D.C. needs a new jail [The Washington Post]
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