Since Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Leonard Bishop’s transfer to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) in June, life has gone on for many of the residents at D.C. Jail who continue to lament what they describe as conditions unfit for any human being.
As Shameka Hayes told The Informer, all the women in her unit share two functioning showers and often go on days without an extra set of clean jumpsuits while on their menstrual cycle. Hayes, a Georgetown University prison scholar, also told The Informer that she watched a classmate wait two months to receive cancer treatment while it reached the terminal stage.
Such conditions compelled Hayes, a resident of D.C. Jail’s Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), to run for the vacant advisory neighborhood commission seat. On Thursday, she defeated 10 other candidates to become the new commissioner of single-member district ANC 7F08.
Hayes,35, said that the ANC seat serves as the latest saga in her life of service and activism that started when she was a student at Jefferson Middle School in Southwest. Hours before winning the election, she relished what she called an opportunity to get back on track after the pandemic triggered the events landing her behind bars.
“Our voices are not heard and our medical and food needs aren’t met,” Hayes said. “We also need education and programming so we don’t go back to what got us in here. There’s a big gap in treatment for men and women. We don’t get a chance to speak up and have our rights as Americans. We need to get this for everybody, all of us a whole. The [conditions] need to be better, all across the board.”
D.C. Jail Residents Speak Out about Conditions
In July, just months after being elected as an advisory neighborhood commissioner, Bishop, serving a life sentence for a murder he said he didn’t commit, received a transfer to FBOP that ended his tenure. At the time of the transfer, he was petitioning for his early release via the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA).
Hayes, a former D.C. Public Schools cook, will now serve as D.C. Jail’s third advisory neighborhood commissioner, walking in the footsteps of Bishop and Joel Caston, the latter of whom was elected as D.C. Jail’s first commissioner in 2021. In her role, Hayes will be able to attend ANC 7F’s monthly meetings virtually, and, as was the case for her predecessors, she will have an office where she can perform her duties.
DOC Director Thomas Faust saluted Hayes for her history-making moment.
“I want to congratulate Shameka Hayes on her election as the 7F08 advisory neighborhood commissioner,” Faust said. “Ms. Hayes is also making history as the first female DCDOC resident to assume this position. We look forward to collaborating with Commissioner Hayes in her new role and working together to serve and support those in our custody.”
The constituents of ANC 7F, which includes Benning, Dupont Hill, and parts of Hill East, learned about Hayes’ electoral victory on Thursday evening. Hayes ran against Seth Andrews, Paul Camby, Harold Cunningham, Demanne Cutchin, Keith Andrews, Travon Eliy, John Henri, Randy Shaw, Arik Simms, and Victor Simms.
For four hours on Thursday, male and female residents of CTF who registered to vote in that single-member district, exercised their right to vote in CTF’s D.C. Public Library branch. Each of them filed into the library, one by one, filled out a pink ballot before slipping it in a box saying “ANC 7F08 Special Election Ballot Box.”
To get on the special election ballot, candidates collected signatures on their unit. They then answered a questionnaire compiled by D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC), the responses to which were given to voters living in CTF as part of a collaboration between DOC and the Office of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
While he didn’t reveal his choice for 7F08 advisory neighborhood commissioner, CTF resident Pedro Barber, 47, said he chose the person he felt represented the interests of his unit. In his fifth month inside the D.C. Jail, Barber told The Informer that he’s seeking more recreation time and resources to help him get on the right foot.
“We have to [unite] as one,” Barber said. “There are certain things, like recreation time. We only get one hour a week. We’re on the unit all of the time. We’re also looking for something to help us get housing when we get back into society.”
The passage of emergency public safety legislation this summer, once again, placed a spotlight on conditions at D.C. Jail. With more adult defendants receiving pre-trial detention, the numbers at the facility are gradually swelling, a source speaking on background said.
D.C. Jail officials meanwhile continue to focus on rehabilitation and family reunification in their efforts to help residents weather the storm of incarceration.
The Young Men Emerging Unit provides D.C. Jail residents, ages of 18 and 25, with the resources needed to change their behavior in preparation for their return to society. Caston founded the program in 2018 with Michael Woody. They served as mentors alongside Charles Fantroy, Halim Flowers, Momolou Stewart and Tyrone Walker.
As it relates to repairing family ties, more than 100 CTF residents have been taking classes as part of the HOPE Foundation’s Family First Parenting Program at D.C. Jail. Earlier this month, they created holiday cards for their children and other family members.
Clifton Penny, a CTF resident, counted among those who crafted holiday cards for his children. However, in the midst of what was supposed to be a joyful moment, he continued to think about his experience at D.C. Jail.
Penny, in D.C. Jail since the beginning of the year, told The Informer that jail officials started taking pillows and mattresses from residents in recent weeks. This dilemma, he said, comes months after an officer at D.C. Jail’s Correctional Detention Facility (CDF), where he stayed earlier this year, threw him in solitary confinement and, upon his return to his cell, left him handcuffed for hours.
As Penny recounted, he sprained his wrist while struggling to break out of the handcuffs. He said three days passed before a jail official facilitated a transfer to Howard University Hospital. He has since attempted, unsuccessfully, to get the name of the officer who allegedly handcuffed him inside of his cell and threatened retaliation for speaking about the incident.
“I got in the hole because I refused to go back to my unit,” Penny said. “They kept locking us down. We didn’t get our proper recreation. It seemed like they were shaking us down for no reason.”
Jerome Carter, a Gen-Xer and diabetic who’s been inside D.C. Jail for a few months, said he struggles to secure fresh, healthy meals. He also told The Informer that he’s reeling from another D.C. Jail resident exposing his genitals to him while they were leaving the medical wing.
That incident, Carter said, happened as he and others continue to endure other battles. “There’s no heat,” Carter said. “It’s freezing in the halls when we go to [the] medical [department]. The food ain’t no good as it is. We get beans, rice, and cold cuts.”
Harold Cunningham Continues His Advocacy
In July, the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety conducted a hearing on the FRESH Starts Act, which, among other provisions, would require the serving of nutrient-dense raw fruits and vegetables at correctional facilities operated by the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) — including CDF, CTF, and Central Cell Block.
Two years prior, in 2021, the same council committee heard public witness testimony about conditions at D.C. Jail. By that time, the U.S. Marshals Service, responding to complaints from the Jan. 6 defendants, conducted an inspection of DOC.
Their report cited the smell of marijuana and body odor, cold food, sewage, and allegations of staff members’ mistreatment of jail residents.
That year, Cunningham made his way back to D.C. Jail from FBOP Beaumont to petition for his early release through IRAA. In 2013, Cunningham and 10 other federal prison inmates filed a class-action lawsuit against FBOP alleging the abuse and neglect of mentally ill inmates at ADX Maximum Security Prison in Florence, Colorado.
That lawsuit resulted in a settlement through which prison officials at ADX changed their mental health treatment protocols and improved personnel training and recognizing and treating mental illness. More than 100 inmates also received transfers to other facilities.
On Thursday, Cunningham fulfilled his civic duty at the CTF library. Speaking about why he ran for political office, Cunningham said he wanted to wield his influence to unite D.C. Jail residents around improving jail conditions. He also expressed a desire to mentor young people within the facility who may not realize the severity of their current situation.
“People should know what’s going on [with[ the racism and discrimination,” Cunningham said. “It’s not easy to come together. The youth here are gone but they need some kind of structure. We need power among ourselves. We don’t need someone over our backs.”