Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday was able to tour D.C. jail facilities, including the section that’s holding people accused of committing crimes in and around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The tour lasted over three hours, according to Greene.
“I’ve never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night,” she wrote on Twitter.
Greene said she witnessed some inmates engaged in continuing education classes but also saw others she described as “truly suffering from long stays in solitary confinement for ‘bad behavior.’”
The tour concluded with the section of the D.C. jail system holding Jan. 6 defendants.
Greene said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” that it was hard to detail what it was like when she, colleagues, and staff members entered the section.
“It was like they were prisoners of war. They had lost hope. They felt forgotten. They said that some of their family members thought they’re dead. They’re not dead. They’re there. And they are being treated horribly.” she said.
Greene is alleging the men were suffering from “virtually no medical care” and “very poor food quality.”
Greene and her staff members were putting together a report about what they saw.
“I am committed to ending this political war and seeing that our justice system is never used against Americans as a political weapon ever again. I am also beginning a plan for real prison reform. Our nation is broken and our people are divided. It’s time to fix it,” she said.
The visit came after Reps. Greene and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) were blocked from entering the facilities on Wednesday. They then implored Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser to direct officials to let them tour the system.
The D.C. Department of Corrections referred comment to Bowser.
“Several members of Congress asked for a tour of our DOC facilities and why not let them in if we’re conducting a tour. I think that would send an entirely wrong message to say that there’s something to hide at the DC Jail,” Bowser, a Democrat, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“This is an important issue and we want people who have to be in the jail to be treated humanely, to have safe conditions, to have access to their lawyers, and to go to trial. And if they’ve been sentenced to be transferred, to be transferred to wherever that sentence will be served. So we hold ourselves to a very high standard as well, and to the extent that the Marshals found deficiencies, I want to be very clear that we will deal with those deficiencies so that we have a safe jail until such time that the District is able to build a new one,” she added.
U.S. Marshals conducted an unannounced visit to the jail last month, the agency announced this week. The visit uncovered poor conditions in the portion not holding Jan. 6 detainees, authorities said, prompting the transfer of hundreds of detainees to a facility in another state.
