After the slaying of two prison guards this year, Public Safety Secretary Mary Ann Saar faces tough questioning by legislators at a hearing today in Annapolis.
In a telephone news conference with reporters Monday, Saar said some of the system?s problems were due to staff shortages, corrupt officers and lack of support from the legislature. She also said that the firing of some prison officials and some correctional officers was being “discussed” as the result of an ongoing investigation.
She said she had no plans to resign, despite calls for that from the union representing the guards. “We have a good plan” for improving the prisons and their programs, Saar said, “and as long as I have the full support of my governor, and I do, I?m staying put.”
Saar, who has had a long career in criminal justice and was Gov. William Donald Schaefer?s secretary of juvenile services and his public safety aide, said her department has raised salaries and given bonuses, bought a lot of new equipment and has a major building program, with Gov. Robert Ehrlich spending more to improve prisons than previous governors.
“We still have trouble hiring people,” she said, particularly for the six state prisons in the Jessup area, where there are 242 vacancies, representing 15 percent of the authorized jobs. There is also a 25 percent turnover rate among the guards.
“When the economy goes up, the number of [job] candidates goes down,” Saar said.
The lack of public transportation to the Jessup area is also a problem, she said.
However, she said “staffing was not an issue” in the murder of two officers this year, but it was a factor in the increasing violence among prisoners.
