The new commissioner of the Maryland Division of Correction pledged Thursday to institute major changes at the Jessup prison where a corrections officer was murdered last month.
“We will not permit that institution to go back to operating the way it was,” said John Rowley, 56, who was named to lead the agency Wednesday after Frank Sizer Jr. abruptly retired amid growing criticism of prison violence.
“We will continue to be vigilant,” Rowley pledged in a conference call with reporters.
He said an “intense review” was under way at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, where Officer David McGuinn was stabbed to death in July.
The prison also has been home to three inmate stabbing deaths this year.
The review will include actions against gangs, Rowley said.
“Gang activity is much like any other inappropriate inmate activity,” he said. “They?re always trying to stay ahead of you. We are trying to stay a step ahead of the gang activity.”
Rowley has been working with the Maryland Division of Correction for 14 months,coming to Maryland after a 25-year career working for the Pennsylvania Corrections Department.
McGuinn was the second corrections officer to be murdered this year.
They were the first corrections officers killed in the line of duty in Maryland since 1984.
The violence also has affected inmates.
In July, 34-year-old Julius Pratt became the third inmate at the maximum-security Maryland House of Correction to be a victim of a homicide there since May.
Rowley said not all of Maryland?s prisons are as embattled as the Jessup site.
“I traveled from the Eastern Shore to … western Maryland, and we have a lot of strong facilities out there,” Rowley said. “… A lot of focus is being put on the facility [in Jessup]. It?s not going to be the inmates running the asylum.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
