Describing the conditions at the House of Correction, Bernard Ralph, a former corrections officer who represents the unionized guards, said, “It?s as bad as you could imagine.”
“We started getting in a new breed of inmate,” said correctional Sgt. Richard Knight ? a more violent strain of criminal. “We tend to watch one another?s backs, [but] fear is part of the job.”
Sen. James Ed DeGrange, a Democrat whose Anne Arundel County district includes the complex of seven correctional facilities in Jessup, said he would get constant phone calls from the families of inmates about the poor conditions at the House of Correction.
“An inmate called me from his cell phone,” DeGrange said, a sign of the contraband that constantly made its way into the facility.
“It?s a very dangerous facility,” said DeGrange, who chairs the budget subcommittee overseeing prison operations. The correctional officers there are “watching some of the worst of the worst. The younger inmates have no fear.”
As the facility was shut down Monday, DeGrange and his House counterpart, Del. Charles Barkley, D-Montgomery, along with Gov. Martin O?Malley, each received an old brass key from the cell blocks, with a commemorative medallion attached.
“I?m so glad the governor acted quickly,” DeGrange said.
What took so long to shut the prison built in 1878? “That?s a good question,” he said.
“There?s some additional capacity” to accept the transfers at other facilities now, he said. But ultimately it?s “a matter of [political] will. There?s some additional capacity” to accept the transfers at other facilities now, DeGrange said. But ultimately it?s “a matter of [political] will.”
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Bernard Ralph said, “We didn?t have an administration that listened” under Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
“It took a couple of fresh pairs of eyes,” said Parole Commission Chairman David Blumberg, an Ehrlich appointee, referring to O?Malley and new Public Safety Secretary Gary Maynard, who, he pointed out, is president of the American Corrections Association.
Maynard “came in and said he never saw a prison worse,” Blumberg said.
Howard Lyes, who served as House of Correction warden from 1981 to 1984, said, “They didn?t have any place to move those inmates” before new facilities were built. There was also “some reluctance to transfer them a long, long way from home.”
House of Correction
» Built: 1878
» Capacity: 1,241 last year; 842 transferred this month, 655 in the last week.
» In-state transfers: 745 sent to Hagerstown, Cumberland, Baltimore and the Eastern Shore.
» Out of state: 97 of most disruptive inmates sent to Virginia, Kentucky and federal prisons, based on history of assaults, gang activity and negative influence.
» Staff: All 250 employees will be transferred to six other Jessup facilities, eliminating all vacancies. Some will get jobs in Baltimore prisons.
» Cost: Average cost per day per inmate at House of Correction in 2003 was $86 ($89 this year), compared with $63 per day average in rest of system.
