Security· Civil Aid and Humanitarian Operations
District of Columbia Jail riot response
A brief internal-security action in the capital.
When a disturbance broke out among the prisoners at the District of Columbia jail, the Secretary of the Navy ordered out a detachment of twenty Marines from the Marine Barracks at Washington to help the civil authorities restore order. The Marines reinforced the jail's guards, and the disturbance was contained without further trouble. It was a minor episode, the kind of routine call on the nearby Marine Barracks that recurred whenever the District's own resources were strained, but it illustrates the standing role of the Washington Marines as a disciplined force on hand for emergencies in the capital. No casualties were suffered. The barracks at Eighth and I Streets had long served as a ready reserve for exactly such contingencies, and a small, prompt show of force was usually enough to settle a jail or street disorder before it spread.
Record no. 372