In March 2020, the SARS Cov-2 pandemic (Covid-19) began impacting Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities where DC individuals are held. On March 13, 2020, the BOP suspended visitation to all BOP facilities, including the CIC’s on-site inspections.

In order to get a clearer picture of conditions in all the facilities where DC individuals are held, the CIC created a 20-question survey focusing on four areas: institutional cleaning, access to medical care, movement, and communication. The survey was sent to 1,750 DC individuals across 111 facilities in June 2020. Five hundred nineteen survey responses were received from 90 different facilities through August 15, 2020.