The Trump administration's Justice Department on Monday notified Mayor Muriel Bowser that it has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, the agency that runs the city's jail facilities. Federal attorneys will examine whether the department engages in a pattern or practice of violating the constitutional rights of the prisoners and detainees in its custody, according to the Justice Department's announcement.
The Civil Rights Division is handling the inquiry under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. That law lets the department investigate violations of prisoners' constitutional rights that result from what it calls a "pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of such rights."
"The Constitution protects the rights of every incarcerated American, including those held in custody in our nation's capital," said Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the division. She said the department was "committed to upholding our federal civil rights laws so that no inmate is confined in unconstitutional conditions or subject to unconstitutional mistreatment" at the Department of Corrections.
The department said it had received numerous allegations about conditions inside the District's facilities, among them a report from the city's own auditor. The complaints it cited include failing to protect people in custody from excessive force, failing to provide adequate medical care, failing to keep the facilities safe and sanitary, and failing to provide adequate nutrition. The announcement stressed that the department has not reached any conclusions about those allegations.
The release did not identify the auditor's report by name. The Office of the District of Columbia Auditor published a report on the jail in May 2025 under the title Urgent Need for New D.C. Jail.
The federal move comes days after a fresh round of complaints about the jail's food. On Oct. 15, six current or former inmates sued the District in federal court, alleging that a widespread rodent and insect infestation had contaminated meals served at the facility, WTOP reported. The plaintiffs say they found mice, parts of mice, cockroaches, spiders and rodent droppings in their meals in incidents between 2023 and August 2026. They are seeking damages and class-action status, along with orders for inspections of the building and its kitchen, regular extermination, airtight food storage and daily food inspections.
A corrections department spokesperson told The Washington Post that the facility "takes concerns regarding food quality seriously" and that its food service operations are subject to regular internal and external oversight and review, according to WTOP. The Justice Department's announcement did not include a response from the District.
Federal scrutiny of the jail is not new. In the fall of 2021, the U.S. Marshals Service inspected the jail, reported what it described as "evidence of systemic failures," particularly at the older Central Detention Facility, and said it would transfer 400 people in federal custody to a federal prison in Pennsylvania, DCist reported at the time. Lamont J. Ruffin, then the acting U.S. marshal for the District, wrote that he had forwarded the inspection's findings to the Civil Rights Division for review.
That inspection began five days after a federal judge held Department of Corrections leaders in contempt of court for failing to provide information about the medical treatment of a defendant charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol. Christopher Geldart, then the District's deputy mayor for public safety and justice, said the Bowser administration was taking the findings seriously. "We regularly work on structural repairs to the aging detention facility; however, the allegations in the summary letter from the Acting U.S. Marshal are deeply concerning," he said in a statement at the time.
The Justice Department said it has conducted investigations of many correctional systems under the same law, and that where violations were found, the resulting settlement agreements led to important reforms. It asked anyone with relevant information about the District's facilities to contact the Civil Rights Division through its online reporting portal.