A few miles from the gleaming sandstone porticos and collonades of the White House, Washington's most unlikely elected official has an executive office of his own -- a cell in the crumbling 1970s District of Columbia Jail. Joel Caston -- nicknamed "Obama" for the leadership qualities he has displayed in mentoring fellow inmates -- explains to AFP how he became the first prisoner in the US capital ever to be elected to public office. "I haven't spent 27, counting, years waiting to go home," Caston tells AFP in a video interview from the DC Jail. "I spent it to prepare myself to never come back to prison." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES