The company that runs Prince George’s County‘s public hospitals says it will no longer serve inmates after aconvict’s armed escape Wednesday from Laurel Regional Hospital, but state corrections officials say the change in policy won’t have much effect because it exempts “emergency” visits.
Kelvin Poke, who took guns from two state corrections officers and led police on an hours-long manhunt, leaving hospital workers and patients shaken in his wake before being killed by police, would still have been brought to the hospital under the new policy – he was sent to Laurel’s emergency room after complaining of chest pains, said Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Mark Vernarelli.
It’s also the case, Vernarelli said, that of more than 800 inmates sent to hospitals in November from Jessup correctional facility where Poke was serving a life sentence plus 40 years on kidnapping, carjacking and burglary charges, only 20 went to Laurel for scheduled visits and six went for emergencies. The remaining inmates seeking medical attention likely went to hospitals in Baltimore.
Under the new policy set by Dimensions Healthcare System, which runsthe county’s four hospitals, the 20 inmates with scheduled visits would have gone elsewhere.
“That’s not a huge impact on our system,” Vernarelli said, adding that the corrections department and Dimensions are still working together to ensure patient and worker safety.
One aspect being closely examined, he said, is whether corrections officers should be armed.
When Poke escaped, his handcuffs had been removed and he had been left alone with one armed guard, a possible violation of department rules requiring one armed guard to be nearby but out of the inmate’s reach, and one unarmed guard at the inmate’s side. The corrections department is investigating the possibility of penalizing the two guards.
Dimensions’ policy also won’t affect operations for county inmates, said James P. Keary, spokesman for Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson. County inmates are sent to Prince George’s Hospital Center and are held in a county-run prisoner’s wing. The state can’t use that wing due to laws preventing state and county inmates from mixing, Keary said.
Poke’s escape was the second from the hospital by an inmate in two months, coming on the heels of the November armed escape of Kamara Mohamed.
