NEWS: U.S.
January 6 detainees in D.C. Jail Requests Transfer to Guantanamo Bay

Near­ly 30 detainees in DC jails charged with charges relat­ed to Jan­u­ary 6, 2021 Capi­tol bomb­ings asked to be trans­ferred to Guan­tanamo Bay Deten­tion Cen­ter if con­di­tions do not improve doing.

In a sev­en-page yel­low legal doc­u­ment recent­ly filed in fed­er­al court, the 34 defen­dants described the cap­i­tal’s prison as a “medieval stan­dard of liv­ing” and a “hell-like hell bent on tor­ment­ing trau­ma­tized guests.”

sit­u­a­tion,” he said. “I don’t want to be trapped in a trag­ic frame of cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment,” he demand­ed a solu­tion to the problem.

The let­ter, which spans two pages, lists a num­ber of con­cerns and frus­tra­tions about their expe­ri­ence. For exam­ple, “beggar/water/medical aid” is said to “keep enduring.”

They say they are not allowed vis­its, access to reli­gious ser­vices, or access to lawyers. Dirty clothes were report­ed to return with “brown stains, pubic hair, or the smell of ripe urine.”

The group said it found mag­gots in the food and did not pro­vide a calo­rie count for the food. Due to mal­nu­tri­tion, her hair and eye­sight are deteriorating.”

Defen­dant says he has seen rats and cock­roach­es in the cell block, reeds in the water, and black mold on the walls, floors and vents.

There have been seri­ous com­plaints over the years about the inhu­mane liv­ing con­di­tions at Wash­ing­ton Prison. For exam­ple, in Novem­ber 2021, the U.S.

Mar­shals Ser­vice trans­ferred 400 inmates from D.C. pris­ons to Penn­syl­va­nia pris­ons because of their con­di­tions and treat­ment, accord­ing to the ACLU.

The Jan. 6 detainee also wrote in his com­plaint that he was shown “pro­pa­gan­da” of crit­i­cal race the­o­ries on a tablet device, along with “re-edu­ca­tion pro­pa­gan­da” and “racial­ly biased information.”

They claim they were phys­i­cal­ly harassed, gassed and beat­en by secu­ri­ty guards.

“We ask that we spend our pre­cious few days here. If the gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to insist that we be held as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al pris­on­ers of war and trans­ferred to Guan­tanamo Bay to live there,” they said.

The let­ter states that the facil­i­ty, which hous­es detainees accused of acts of ter­ror­ism, pro­vides “nutri­tious food, reg­u­lar sun expo­sure, first-class med­ical care, respect for reli­gious require­ments, phys­i­cal activity.・

Amuse­ment facil­i­ties” are provided.

The Dis­trict of Columbi­a’s Depart­ment of Cor­rec­tions has no comment.