World Prisons
All prisons

United States · DC · Washington

D.C. Jail

Low
Verified
Aging · 4mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit D.C. Jail

Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of D.C. Jail

[ Jail in Washington, D.C. District of Columbia Jail The District of Columbia Jail or the D.C. Central Detention Facility (commonly referred to as the D.C. Jail) is a jail run by the [District of Columbia Department of Corrections in the Hill East neighborhood of Washington, D.C., U.S. The majority of male inmates housed in the Central Detention Facility are awaiting adjudication of cases or are sentenced for misdemeanor offenses.[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._Jail#cite_note-doc-1) Female inmates in the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections are housed at the adjacent Correctional Treatment Facility. After the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, sentenced felons are transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._Jail#cite_note-doc-1)

Background

The District of Columbia Jail or the D.C. Central Detention Facility (commonly referred to as the D.C. Jail) is a jail run by the District of Columbia Department of Corrections in the Hill East neighborhood of Washington, D.C., U.S. The majority of male inmates housed in the Central Detention Facility are awaiting adjudication of cases or are sentenced for misdemeanor offenses. Female inmates in the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections are housed at the adjacent Correctional Treatment Facility. After the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, sentenced felons are transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

2,164

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

1872

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 3 Jul 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1872

Region

DC

Security level

—

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Cole Tomas Allen
    Cole Tomas Allen
    1995 · indie game developer

    On the evening of April 25, 2026, gunshots were fired near the main security screening area for the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

1901 D Street Southeast, Washington

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

—
Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Related facilities

All in United States →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in United States

7436 peers
Capacity (beds)this: 2164 · peers avg: 547 (+296%)

Data completeness

44%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). D.C. Jail. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/d-c-jail
Chicago
"D.C. Jail." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/d-c-jail.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-d-c-jail,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {D.C. Jail},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/d-c-jail},
  urldate = {2026-10-20}
}