Advisory Neighborhood Commission district 7F08

[1] After receiving parole from his life sentence and moving to the one residential complex within 7F07, Castón successfully lobbied to carve out a district for just the jail, 7F08.[2][3] According to the District of Columbia Board of Elections (BOE) and Department of Corrections (DOC), inmates are eligible to serve as commissioners provided they meet residency requirements.The same year, the advocacy group Neighbors for Justice began to pressure the DOC to make inmates aware of the election and their eligibility to run in it.Castón, who had not lived in Ward 8 since he received a life sentence for murder 26 years prior, attributed the issue to incorrect guidance given by prison staff when he registered.[2][P 2] Twenty-five signatures are required for running in a special election, and amidst a 23-hour-a-day COVID lockdown, guards circulated petitions on inmates' behalves.[7] He used Zoom to conduct official business with people outside the jail,[1] including participating in "hybrid" ANC meetings that had been established in April 2020 because of the pandemic.[15] Bishop, a student at Georgetown and Ashland University and a youth mentor,[15][16] attended ANC meetings via Zoom and received guidance from other commissioners on procedural matters.Bishop's chief concerns with the jail included slow mail delivery, low-quality and unhealthy food, and limits on commissary purchasing that do not adapt to inflation-borne price hikes.[15] Bishop worked with alleged participants in the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, whose presence in the jail had brought Congressional scrutiny into living conditions there.[16] Sixty other commissioners sought to prevent Bishop's transfer, alongside Pinto and Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s delegate to Congress.[21] Hayes, who like Howard and Bishop has attended classes at Georgetown University while in jail,[22] was awaiting trial on drug charges; it was unclear if she would be at the D.C.Entering her term, she cited hygiene concerns in her unit, which she said had two working showers and was failing to provide clean jumpsuits to women who were menstruating.[22] She also criticized food and medical issues in the jail (saying she had gone from a large to a triple-extra-large clothing size while incarcerated) and gender disparities in access to education in what she called a "male-run facility".