Muriel Bowser headed to the D.C. Jail this morning, but not for any of the unsavory reasons that drew some of her former D.C. Council colleagues there. Instead, Bowser was at the jail to promote new corrections reforms she plans to push through the Council this fall.

Bowser toured the jail’s new Work Readiness Program, a unit for inmates seeking job training, where she visited a class of trainees. The mayor touted new legislative plans to make it easier for misdemeanor inmates to get “good time” credit on their sentences.

Before touring the cells, Bowser told the inmates that the new programs hinged on how well they did.

“The more successful these earlier efforts are, the more successful I can be in getting more resources,” Bowser said.

Bowser also plans legislation to allow pre-trial inmates incarcerated on misdemeanors to leave the jail to work at their jobs—an idea that seems at odds with her administration’s recent complaints that violent offenders are being under-prosecuted. Still, Department of Corrections chief Thomas Faust insisted the department would screen work-release inmates for potential violence.

The jail’s new work-training unit is already helping at one infamous District criminal: Georgetown voyeur rabbi Barry Freundel. As Bowser visited the work training unit, Freundel was in the computer lab.

Photo by Will Sommer