The mission of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections (DOC) is to provide a safe, secure, orderly, and humane environment for the confinement of pretrial detainees and sentenced inmates, while affording those in custody meaningful rehabilitative opportunities for successful community reintegration.
Summary of Services
DOC operates and maintains the Central Detention Facility (CDF) and the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF). Both facilities are nationally accredited by the American Correctional Association (ACA). DOC also operates and maintains the District’s Central Cellblock (CCB). The department has contracts with two private halfway houses: Fairview and Hope Village; these are often used as alternatives to incarceration. Like other municipal jails, 60 to 70 percent of inmates in DOC’s custody have one or more outstanding legal matters that require detention. Most of the remaining 30 to 40 percent are sentenced inmates or parole violators, and small portions (generally 3 to 4 percent) are writs and holds. Median length of stay for released inmates is 31 days or less. Ninety percent of DOC’s inmates are male. DOC also houses female inmates and a small number of juveniles charged as adults at the CTF.
DOC offers inmates a number of programs and services that support successful community re-entry. These include: Residential Substance Abuse Treatment; Re-entry preparation (Re-Entry); Institutional Work Details and Community Work Squads; Job-readiness Training and Certification; Special Education (through the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)); Adult Education / GED Preparation and Post-Secondary Preparation; and the Portal of Entry. The Portal of Entry, a Mayor Bowser administration initiative, is designed to unite provision of services from several District agencies, including the Department of Human Services, the Department of Behavioral Health, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Employment Services, and the District of Columbia Housing Authority. The goal of the Portal is to immediately provide vital post-release services to returning citizens as an incorporated part of the release process from CDF and CTF. This minimizes the time to receive services that support successful re-entry, including housing, employment, education, health care, job training and placement, and substance use/mental health aftercare. ACA and National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) accredited comprehensive health and mental health services are provided through Unity Health Care (contractually) and the District's Department of Behavioral Health. In addition, DOC provides inmate personal adjustment and support services, such as case management, food services, laundry, religious programming, visitation, law library, and the inmate grievance process. DOC facilities operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
