| Advisory Neighborhood Commission district 7F08 | |
|---|---|
| Constituency for the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions | |
.png) Map of Advisory Neighborhood Commission district 7F08 | |
| Region | Washington, D.C. |
| Population | ≈ 1,700 |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2022 |
| Number of members | 1 |
| Member(s) | Shameka Hayes |
Single-member district 7F08 of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7F in Washington, D.C., has existed since 2023, its electorate consisting entirely of inmates of the D.C. Jail. From 2013 to 2022, the jail's residents made up a majority of district 7F07, from which 7F08 was then carved out. As of December 2023[update], 7F08's commissioner is Shameka Hayes.
While district 7F07 first appeared in the 2012 general election, no election was contested until 2020, partly because convicted felons—the longest-term residents of the jail, where stays typically last less than a year—could not vote and were thus barred from running for the Commission. After D.C. enfranchised all felons in 2020, several inmates ran write-in campaigns in 2020, but all failed on procedural grounds. Joel Castón, who would have won in 2020 but for a paperwork error, won a special election the next year to fill the vacancy caused by his own disqualification—the first election in American history in which both the victor and all members of the electorate were incarcerated.[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. In 2022, Leonard Bishop was elected to be the new district's first commissioner. Bishop was transferred to another facility in July 2023 and replaced by Hayes in a special election. Hayes, who is incarcerated pending trial, is one of only roughly 100 female residents of the 1,700-person district.