Washington D.C. Facing Class Action for 'Overdetention' of Inmates

A just-filed proposed class action that claims the Government of the District of Columbia knowingly allows its Department of Corrections (DOC) to overdetain inmates past midnight of their release dates. The 14-page lawsuit, served to the District of Columbia’s mayor and attorney general, also alleges the District of Columbia committed further civil rights violations by unlawfully subjecting DOC inmates to “blanket strip searches and visual body cavity searches” after judges had already determined the individuals were to be processed for release from detention.

The lawsuit notes that most individuals held in the DOC’s custody are people awaiting trial, misdemeanants serving their sentences, or parole and probation violators. The named plaintiff in the suit claims he went to court on December 7, 2015 and was ordered to be released. Instead of being released from the courthouse, the lawsuit says, the plaintiff was transported back to the DOC’s Central Detention Facility where he was held for several hours. Upon being brought back to the Central Detention Facility, the complaint continues, the plaintiff was allegedly subjected to a strip and visual body cavity search even though there was no reasonable suspicion or probable cause that he was concealing anything.

The complaint outlines two proposed classes: an overdetained class and a strip search class. The former covers anyone who has, is or will be incarcerated in any District of Columbia DOC facilities from August 1, 2013 onward who was or will not be released by midnight on their court-ordered release date or “the date on which the basis for [the individual’s] detention has otherwise expired.” The strip search class covers anyone who, in the custody of the DOC, was taken to court from a DOC facility, ordered to be released or posted bail (or was otherwise allowed to leave the DOC’s care) who was subjected to a strip search and/or visual body cavity search without reasonable suspicion or probable cause that a weapon or contraband was being concealed.