Maryland governor to close Baltimore detention center

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – An announcement by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan that he is closing the Baltimore City Detention Center marked a milestone in long-standing problems with the state’s dangerously decrepit correctional facilities.

Hogan, a Republican, did not mention O’Malley, now a candidate running for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he indirectly repeatedly criticized him by insisting the prison should have been shut down years before.

In 2013, federal prosecutors charged several people, including corrections officers, with letting a gang operate a drug-trafficking and money laundering ring from inside the facility, The Washington Post reports.

“Corruption has run rampant with gang members given free reign for years to run the facility”, Hogan said.

In total, 44 defendants faced charges in the case. Thirty-five defendants pleaded guilty; eight defendants went to trial and one defendant has died.

Far worse, a notorious criminal organization called the Black Guerrilla Family led by Tavon White effectively ran the prison for many years from within it, Hogan noted.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Justice Center, an activist group, asked a federal judge last month to reopen a lawsuit against Maryland over conditions at the jail.

Fathi added that “dangerous physical conditions and shockingly deficient medical and mental health care” exist in many jail facilities that remain open. The court filing also described cells infested with mice and cockroaches, moldy showers, poor ventilation and broken toilets.

The agencies also said the state failed to cure systemic problems, despite entering into a 2007 agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The 750 male prisoners will be transferred to other sites in the city and in nearby jurisdictions, said Hogan, who was joined by state Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen Moyer.

McFadden said he has worked for years with governors to try to increase the number of inmates paroled after they have been deemed eligible by the state parole board.

The closure of the jail, which the state took over from the city in 1991, will save Maryland between $10 million and $15 million annually, Mr. Hogan said.

“Given the jail’s history of dysfunction we’re concerned about implementation, where the prisoners will go and if that will generate crowding in other facilities”, Fathi said. Parts of the complex, which also has wings housing women and juveniles, date to 1859. “The fact is that this is a pre-trial facility where individuals being held here have not yet been convicted of a crime, but still they are forced to live in substandard, frankly appalling, circumstances”. Only the men’s detention center is being closed.