Prison to fire 3 over woman's detention as a man

District officials plan to fire three corrections officers who failed to realize a woman was being held in the male detention unit at the D.C. jail last month even after she had been strip-searched and allowed to shower with male inmates, government sources said yesterday.

Virginia Grace Soto, 47, was arrested on July 14 and thought to be a man despite her repeated protests otherwise, according to two internal reports by D.C. police and the Department of Corrections.



Although Soto came in contact with at least nine jail employees, only three are being terminated. Government sources wouldn't disclose their names yesterday, but one was said to be a supervisor.

The corrections officers "failed to comply [with] standard intake search policies as mandated," a 73 - page internal report by the Corrections Department says.

The reports reveal that Soto was arrested twice since April and that both times officials classified her as a man.