Girl's Jailing Likely Breaks Federal Law, Judge Says

[MountainLaurel]

A D.C. Superior Court judge said yesterday that the city is probably violating federal law by housing a 16-year-old girl in an adult wing of the D.C. jail.

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Alisha Carrington, who is charged with murder, is kept in her cell 23 hours a day, and the unusual conditions of her detention have been the subject of three hearings before Gardner this week. Carrington's attorneys want her moved into a psychiatric facility so she can get help for what they say are serious mental health problems. But Gardner said that he isn't sure he can order such a move and that he needs at least a few more days to sort out his options.

Carrington is accused of stabbing Michael Steven Copeland, 57, early Aug. 10 during a confrontation in a neighbor's apartment on Good Hope Road SE. Police said Copeland was stabbed 14 times, including at least once in the head.

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Boys charged as adults in the District are housed in a special wing of the D.C. jail, where, to comply with federal law, they are supposed to be kept out of "sight and sound" of adult inmates.

No such wing exists for girls because it is so rare for one to be charged as an adult, and so Carrington is in the women's wing of the jail, kept in her cell almost round-the-clock to minimize her contact with adults.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091501168.html