RECIPIENT OF THE DC BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION 2023 LEGACY AWARD
Serving Our Community in the DMV
Residents, Reunited Families Celebrate the Holidays at HOPE Foundation Holiday Gathering
Vol 59 No 10... December 21 - 27, 2023
Happy Holidays from The Washington Informer Family
Season of Giving Initiative Connects Families with Incarcerated Parents By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer Iris Carpenter came home from D.C. Jail’s Central Treatment Facility (CTF) on Dec. 7, just in time for the holiday season. During her nearly four months of incarceration, Carpenter missed Halloween and Thanksgiving, which she said took a toll on her and her eight children. She said making it out of D.C. Jail with her mind intact meant
taking classes, including HOPE Foundation’s Family First Parenting Program. On Saturday, HOPE Foundation organized a holiday gathering at Busboys & Poets Anacostia where Carpenter and her children, along with several other families, enjoyed each other's company over a hot meal. Other families made holiday cards for their incarcerated loved ones, many
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5 The Hope Foundation hosted its Annual Season of Giving Initiative at Busboys and Poets in Southeast on Dec.16. Children enjoyed a special day filled with food, music, games, and gifts. (Ja’Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)
In Special Election, Shameka Hayes Elected as D.C. Jail Advisory
Family Demands Answers from DPR as Lifeguard Lies in Hospital
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Questions around Staffing and Policy at Aquatic Centers By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Jefferson, a fifth-generation Washingtonian and alumna of School Without Walls in Northwest, was in her third year of employment as a D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) lifeguard. Since starting, she worked at Roosevelt Aquatic Center, connected to Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School. She also had stints at the Wilson Aquatic Center, Takoma 5After suffering a medical emergency and falling into Aquatic Center, Jelleff Pool, and Hearst Pool. Since the in- the pool at the Roosevelt Aquatic Center, Jazmin Jefcident, DPR leadership visited the Jefferson family at the ferson is hospitalized, in critical condition, with what family members describe as substantial brain damage.
LIFEGUARD Page 31 Her family seeks answers. (Courtesy Photo)
Since Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Leonard Bishop’s transfer to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) in June, life has gone on for many of the residents at D.C. Jail who continue to lament what they describe as conditions unfit for any human being. As Shameka Hayes told The Informer, all the women in her unit share two functioning showers and often go on days without an extra set of clean jumpsuits while on their menstrual cycle. Hayes, a Georgetown University prison scholar, also told The Informer that she watched a classmate wait two months to receive cancer treatment while it reached the terminal stage. Such conditions compelled Hayes, a resident of D.C. Jail’s Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), to run for the vacant advisory neighborhood commission seat. On Thursday, she defeated 10 other candidates to become the new commissioner of single-mem-
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