A new company policy in which Prince George?s hospitals will serve inmates during “emergency” visits only would not have prevented a recent armed convict?s escape from Laurel Regional Hospital, state corrections officials said.
Kelvin Poke, who took guns from two officers and led police on a manhunt before he was killed, would still have gone to the hospital last week because he was sent to the emergency room with chest pains, said Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Mark Vernarelli.
Of the more than 800 inmates sent to hospitals in November from the Jessup correctional facility where Poke was incarcerated, 20 went to Laurel for scheduled visits and six for emergencies. The remaining inmates likely went to hospitals in Baltimore, he said.
Under the new policy set by Dimensions Healthcare System, which runs the county?s four public 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.
Also, the corrections department is investigating the two guards. When Poke escaped, his handcuffs were removed and he was left 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.
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 because of laws preventing state and county inmates from mixing, said James Keary, spokesman for Prince George?s County Executive Jack Johnson.
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.
