The U.S. Marshals Service plans to move about 400 inmates out of the D.C. jail after a recent surprise inspection found evidence of “systemic” mistreatment of detainees, including unsanitary living conditions and the punitive denial of food and water, officials said.

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       While “a formal summary” of the inspection, conducted last month, is still being prepared, Lamont J. Ruffin, the acting marshal for U.S. District Court in Washington, told the D.C. Corrections Department in a letter Monday that the findings “may warrant further examination” by the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

       The jail, formerly known as the Central Detention Facility (CDF), houses about 1,500 detainees, of which roughly 400 are inmates awaiting court appearances in federal cases. In light of the inspection’s findings, the Justice Department said Tuesday, the federal detainees in the CDF will be moved to the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa.

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       The move will not include about 120 detainees being held in the Corrections Department’s Central Treatment Facility (CTF), located with the jail in Southeast Washington, the Marshals Service said. Those include about 40 defendants who face federal charges in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the D.C. corrections department has said.

       Ruffin, who ordered the inspection, said conditions at the CTF “were observed to be largely appropriate and consistent with federal prisoner detention standards,” and that the problems were primarily in the main jail.

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       In the CDF, an eight-member team of deputy U.S. marshals found “large amounts of standing human sewage ... in the toilets of multiple occupied cells” and many cells in which water “had been shut off for days,” Ruffin wrote.” He said jail staff members “were observed antagonizing detainees” and “directing detainees to not cooperate” with the review. One prisoner was warned by a staff member to “stop snitching.”

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       “Supervisors appeared unaware or uninterested in any of these issues” Ruffin wrote.

       Neither the Corrections Department nor D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s office responded to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

       The unannounced inspection, from Oct. 18 to Oct. 23, began five days after a federal judge in Washington found the jail warden, Wanda Patten, and D.C. Corrections Director Quincy Booth in contempt of court in a case involving the alleged mistreatment of a detainee charged in the Capitol riot.

       Judge Royce C. Lamberth said jail officials “abused” the civil rights of the defendant, Christopher Worrell, an accused member of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence. The judge said the officials failed to turn over information needed to approve wrist surgery that had been recommended for Worrell months earlier.

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       Lamberth called for the Justice Department to investigate whether the jail had been violating the civil rights of the dozens of prisoners charged in the Jan. 6 mayhem.

       Lawyers, judges, detainees and others have long criticized conditions at the 45-year-old jail. The complaints peaked earlier this year after the prolonged confinement of detainees — including 23-hour-a-day lockdowns — to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

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       Ruffin’s letter, addressed to Booth, said, “Evidence of drug use was pervasive” in the jail and that “the facility had a strong smoke and odor of marijuana.” It said, “The smell of urine and feces was overpowering in many locations” while “food delivery and storage” was substandard. “Hot meals were observed served cold and congealed,” the letter said.

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       Copies of the letter were sent to two judges in U.S. District Court in Washington, the acting U.S. attorney and chief federal public defender in D.C., other officials of the Marshal’s Service and the deputy chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

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       “Water and food appeared to be withheld from detainees for punitive reasons,” Ruffin said. Meanwhile, “Jail entrance screening procedures were inconsistent and sloppy” and the staff was “observed not following COVID-19 mitigation protocols.”

       The Marshals Service declined to comment on prisoner movements, which could begin as soon as this week and continue for weeks.

       This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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