(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Trump administration on Monday launched a formal investigation into the controversial D.C. Department of Corrections, dubbed the “D.C. Gulag” by critics over the reported harsh treatment of detainees, including many Jan. 6 defendants.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division notified D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser of the investigation in response to mounting allegations that the district’s jail system has violated prisoners’ constitutional rights.
The jail system came under fire after 2021, when it housed several Jan. 6 defendants, most of whom went on to decry the inhumane treatment they suffered while in detention. Some of the detainees, including many elderly individuals, were first-time offenders.
Some defendants were held in pretrial detention amid the Biden administration’s aggressive prosecution of their cases.
The Biden administration even persuaded appellate judges at times to overturn pretrial release for first-time offenders, some of whom qualified for release under the Bail Reform Act’s guidelines, according to defense attorneys.
The probe will be led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division.
In a statement, Dhillon said that the Constitution “protects the rights of every incarcerated American, including those held in custody in our nation’s capital.”
She added, “We are committed to upholding our federal civil rights laws so that no inmate is confined in unconstitutional conditions or subject to unconstitutional mistreatment at the District of Columbia Department of Corrections.”
The @CivilRights Division protects the rights of all incarcerated Americans, including those held in the DC Jail. We @theJusticeDept will make sure DC inmates are not subjected to unconstitutional conditions of confinement.https://t.co/dQOXUfKt39
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) October 19, 2026
The investigation comes nearly two months after former DOJ official Jonathan Gross, now head of his own law firm, filed a petition for a “writ of mandamus” in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
By filing the document, Gross is asking a federal judge to order Dhillon to investigate what Gross describes as torture at the D.C. jail. He said that the DOJ failed to act on a civil rights referral made by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in 2021.
Lamberth held Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth and D.C. jail director Wanda Patten in civil contempt after jail officials delayed the medical records for Worrell and blocked a surgery doctors had recommended for a broken hand.
Lamberth referred the matter to the DOJ for further investigation. However, the Biden administration ignored the referral, according to Gross’s petition.
This is in direct response to my lawsuit "J6ers Were Tortured in the DC Gulag v. Dhillon." https://t.co/um1RxMJWop
Obviously @AAGDhillon will not give credit to me or @TuckerCarlson . But everyone knows that is why she is finally moving to investigate the DC Gulag.
But the… https://t.co/rLSdDonZkl
— Jonathan Gross (@Jon_Gross) October 19, 2026
