The principal at the justice center's school retired in December and was not permanently replaced until February. The facility population has been close to and sometimes exceeds its 144 capacity, but the school is staffed for about 100 students. The design of the facility does not include enough classroom space for that many students; makeshift classrooms, such as the cafeteria and the visitation room, are difficult to manage, teachers say.
Still, Mark Mechlinski, director of the correctional education program, said he was surprised by the March letters to O'Malley. He said that not long before, he had asked about safety in a meeting with nearly all of the education employees.
"I was told, point-blank, `We are not concerned about our safety.' They said they were not afraid to come to work," Mechlinski said. "I'm not sure what changed."
The letter to O'Malley was written by Charles W. Martin, who has been a justice center computer teacher for several years. "The staff feels that since we are employed by the state of Maryland, the state should ensure that we have a safe work environment," the letter says.
About 30 education employees and 233 juvenile services workers are assigned to the justice center.
"Student behavior reports and incident reports seem to be ignored," the memo says. "Feedback from teacher's attempts to process behavior incidents is never received."
One example is included in a letter by teacher Loretta Cunningham-Williams, which was also forwarded to O'Malley.
She wrote of being attacked by a youth in November during one of her classes. The boy was released to the community without ever being charged with her assault, she wrote. But he returned to the justice center on new charges in February, she wrote, and she has since endured his "verbal rants, threats and suggestive hand gestures."
On March 7, the day she wrote the letter, she said, he made "closed fist swings at me" and was "saying he was going to knock me out like he did before."
In an interview yesterday, Kahi Fraser, a former office processing clerk at the justice center, said a boy who threw a student desk at her was not charged. She said she went to Mercy Medical Center with a bruised rib after the March 4 assault.
When she returned to work March 31, she said, the juvenile was still at the justice center. She said she stopped going to work April 10 and was fired for absenteeism May 5.
