When lawmakers return to Annapolis in two weeks and the administration of Gov.-elect Martin O?Malley starts moving in, these public officials will again be surrounded by convicted felons.
Not the lobbyists who occasionally go to jail, but the blue-uniformed inmates from the Jessup boot camp who polish the brass, swab the floors, clean the bathrooms and dust the desks and chairs in the House and Senate chambers.
“They pick the most squared-away inmates” for the Statehouse, said Drill Instructor Greg Smith, a correctional officer who sometimes supervises the prisoners. He is also part of the intensive physical and mental training the 30-man platoons of inmates endure.
“They just PT you to death ? you do a lot of physical training,” said Kim Oteyza, a platoon “guide.” “They just test your patience.”
The Herman Toulson Correctional Boot Camp is one of six units in the prerelease system designed to ease re-entry into the general population. One standard for admission to the program is that the inmates have not been convicted of a crime where the victim was physically injured, but their offenses can include armed robbery, said camp spokesman Ron Leverette.
“We?ve never had a bad mishap,” Leverette said. After all, “the inmates are over there at the governor?s mansion,” working on the grounds and moving furniture.
“We have walk-offs from time to time,” the most recent one in July by a boot-camp inmate working at a state police barracks, Leverette said. “That is an escape ? it?s all over.”
Forget about the parole the inmate was heading for, he said.
The 10 inmates who work at the State House five days a week are easy to spot, with military boots and blue trousers with a yellow stripe.
“I find it shocking that they would allow someone like me in a place like this,” said Oteyza, who was sentenced to five years for dealing drugs in November 2005. He said he?s surprised at the friendliness of the staff of the governor, House and Senate who work there.
“The level of respect they have for us is amazing,” Oteyza said.
