WASHINGTON — Editor's Note: The above video is from a 2021 story featuring a tour of the current jail.
Authorities are investigating after two people died over the weekend at the DC Jail.
A Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed that Ramone O’Neal, 28, died on Friday.
Then, on Sunday, DC DOC said 37-year-old Sean Lee died.
Lee was a cellmate with 40-year-old Marcell Jackson. Jackson was administered Narcan after being found in medical distress.
DC DOC says there is no official cause of death yet for both O’Neal and Lee. No signs of trauma or suicide were found.
The DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is currently conducting autopsies of the two men.
DC DOC could not say whether Lee, O’Neal or Jackson were D.C. residents.
All three were housed in the DC Jail’s central detention facility.
The DC DOC said the department remains vigilant about contraband.
“These incidents are currently under investigation,” said DC DOC spokesperson Keena Blackmon.
On Sunday, DC Councilmember and mayoral candidate Trayon White made an emergency visit to the jail in response to the deaths.
"Since Friday, I have followed up on reported concerns about the conditions and mistreatment of inmates at the DC Jail. I spoke to the family of an inmate that died in the jail’s psychiatric unit,” White said. “The mother of the deceased is outraged, having last heard from her son on Mother’s Day.”
It is unclear if the inmate who died in the jail’s psychiatric unit is Lee or O’Neal.
In March, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser highlighted investments in the Hill East community, including the plan for a new DC Jail on Hill East.
In her budget, Bowser allotted for an investment in a new jail and the shutdown of the current facility.
"We’ve been able to invest in opening a new high school, and an advanced career technical center," Bowser said at the time. "We’ve been able to invest in something we’ve been wanting to invest in a long time -- the sports complex -- and we’ve been able to invest in a new jail."
The $251 million investment in a new DC Jail attached to the current correctional treatment facility would mean the “eventual” closure of the current DC jail, with conditions so concerning to U.S. Marshals that they moved their inmates out last November.