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Washington Informer: D.C. Council Considers Bill Banning Solitary Confinement in City Jails
On July 18, Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) introduced the “Eliminating Restrictive and Segregated Enclosures Solitary Confinement Act of 2022” which would limit the use of safe cells that are used by D.C. Jail officials to house residents at risk of harming themselves and mandates those with mental health challenges get the care needed. The bill would apply to the D.C. Jail and the city’s youth detention facilities. Additionally, the legislation would require the Department of Corrections and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to devise a plan to eliminate solitary confinement and to report to the council on the impact of changing the current policy.
Cheh said solitary confinement doesn’t rehabilitate residents.
“Studies have shown that solitary confinement has many negative effects, including increased risk of addiction, recidivism and suicide,” she said. “I am proud to continue my previous work on this issue by moving the District forward and severely limiting the instances in which solitary confinement can be used.”. . .
Cheh’s bill emerges as a national movement to ban solitary confinement gains ground. Unlock the Box serves as an advocacy group that has called for local, state and federal officials to adopt the United Nations Nelson Mandela Rule which limits the use of solitary confinement for incarcerated residents up to 15 days and bans it totally for children, pregnant people, new mothers and others in vulnerable populations.
Patrice Sulton works as the executive director of the DC Justice Lab, an organization seeking to make the District’s criminal justice system fairer for people of color and those with low incomes.
Sulton embraces Cheh’s bill.
“This bill is extraordinarily important,” Sulton said. “Solitary confinement is a cruel, inhumane and degrading form of punishment and amounts to torture under international law. Any amount of time in solitary confinement increases the chances of suicide, opioid addiction, death by homicide and recidivism upon release.”
Washington Post: D.C. may end right on red for cars, let cyclists yield at stop signs
The measures are part of the Safer Streets Amendment Act of 2022, which incorporates language from several pieces of legislation aimed at making walking and cycling safer. D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), chairwoman of the council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, requested the bill be included on the agenda for a vote when the council reconvenes in September.
“Despite the Vision Zero commitment, our streets remain far too dangerous,” Cheh said in a statement, referring to the traffic-safety program that aims to reduce traffic injuries and deaths. “This bill takes several important steps to reprioritize streets for people over cars and increase traffic safety for all, no matter how you get around the District.”
Treating stop signs as yield signs, according to a council transportation committee report on the bill, would move cyclists through intersections more quickly — making them less exposed, increasing their visibility to drivers and reducing their chances of being hit — and help cyclists maintain momentum.
“Stopping and starting can be hard on the bike in the neighborhood if it’s every block. It’s quite onerous,” said Ralph Buehler, a professor of urban affairs and the planning program chair at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs. “The classical neighborhood has four-way stops every intersection.”
Adopting the Idaho Stop also decriminalizes what is a common biking behavior and, the committee report said, “eliminates cause for police stops that disproportionately impact people of color and divert law enforcement resources toward unnecessary activities.” The report adds that decriminalization would encourage ridership, which can lead to more bicyclists and safety in numbers.
A measure that would have allowed cyclists to treat red lights as a stop sign was removed from the legislation, although the bill does grant DDOT authority to post signs allowing riders to proceed through red lights.
“After meeting with DDOT safety experts and engineers and some members of the public, the committee was swayed that riders treating red light as stop signs may not be appropriate here in the District, given the many complicated intersections that we have,” Cheh said during a July 13 committee meeting.
WUSA9: Councilmembers want more information on monkeypox to be offered by DC Health
Councilmembers Mary Cheh, Robert White, Charles Allen, Brooke Pinto, Trayon White, Elissa Silverman, Brianne Nadeau, and Anita Bonds signed the letter.
