Prince George’s County Department of Corrections Director Alfred McMurray was fired Wednesday after months of blunders were capped with the disappearance of four handguns from the county jail armory.
McMurray served the department for more than 25 years, climbing from a private to director as he managed inmates, housing units and staff.
But in the last few months he had been rankled by deep-rooted problems — inmates were found with cell phones, corrections officers were investigated for turning tricks with inmates, and two handcuff keys made their way to inmates, including one that was found in high-profile inmate Keith Washington’s front pocket. Washington, a former police official, has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter and other charges after shooting two men, killing one of them, in his Accokeek home in January 2007.
Vernon Herron, county director of public safety, said McMurray had served the department well over the years, but he and other county officials couldn’t allow “the enormous task and responsibility” of keeping the public safe to slip through the cracks.
“[Public safety] is not like making donuts,” Herron said. “In this business, if you fall asleep at the wheel, people get hurt, people get killed.”
Investigators have yet to find the guns that were unaccounted for during a regular monthly inventory of the armory conducted Monday. The armory is locked and is inaccessible to inmates, Herron said.
Mary Lou McDonough, the current deputy director of corrections, has been anointed the interim director. She was made deputy director in April 2005 after working in the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development for 28 years.
Firing McMurray is only the beginning of changes at the jail, Herron said. McDonough was meeting with command officials Wednesday to start assessing the multitude of issues that have plagued the department. Some staff members may be moved to new posts, and others may be let go.
“This was not a personal issue, it was a personnel issue,” Herron said. “We had to make this move and go in a different direction.”
