Baltimore City Detention

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

State corrections secretary Gary D. Maynard ordered polygraph tests Friday of top administrators and "integrity reviews" of every employee at the Baltimore City Detention Center in an effort to root out corruption at the jail. Maynard has moved his office to the facility from Towson to oversee a review of leadership, staff and operations amid allegations that the Black Guerrilla Family gang developed broad power inside the jail, a spokesman said. More than two dozen inmates and correctional officers in the city jail are charged in a scheme that officials say involved the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, including cellphones, into the facility.

When Dawn Downing says attendance is mandatory at her high school, she means it in a way no other principal can: All of her nearly 120 students are locked up at the Baltimore city jail on charges ranging from armed robbery to murder. The students, who wear military-style fatigues with "B.C.D.C." printed on the back, take English, math and science much as other high school kids do. They just do it in six portable trailers staffed with guards and surrounded by a barbed-wire fence at the Baltimore City Detention Center.

The federal racketeering and drug charges unveiled this week against 25 inmates and guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center raise serious questions about the state's management of the facility. Investigators detailed a pattern of corruption and criminal behavior that was so widespread that for much of the last few years, the inmates were literally running the asylum. It will take drastic action to root out the crooked corrections officers and incompetent higher-ups responsible for this debacle, but that's only a start.

The Baltimore City Detention Center may still be a dismal, overcrowded place, but conditions have improved significantly since the state took control of it last year, a new report finds.Article on Page 1B

The final edition of The Evening Sun Thursday incorrectly identified Commissioner of Pretrial Detention and Services LaMont W. Flanagan, who oversees the Baltimore City Detention Center for the Maryland Department of Safety and Correctional Services.The Evening Sun regrets the errors.

NEW YORK -- LaMont Flanagan, Maryland's commissioner of the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, responded when asked recently about a federal investigation of conditions at the Baltimore City Detention Center, "We're not the Hyatt of jails, but we are the Motel 6." I've stayed at plenty of Motel 6s during the three years that I've conducted prison investigations for Human Rights Watch. And I've been to a lot of jails. As far as jails go, the Baltimore City Detention Center ranks among the worst I've seen.

A correctional officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center has been arrested and charged with drug offenses after another officer saw marijuana being passed to a prisoner, according to a statement yesterday by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. According to court documents, Tonyette Yeargin, 19, of Northeast Baltimore was arrested Saturday on charges that include possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and delivery of illegal contraband. The statement says a correctional officer witnessed the incident and notified authorities.

BALTIMORE -- A 29-year old Baltimore City Detention Center prisoner was stabbed as he returned to his cell from recreation time at 9:22 a.m. yesterday, prison officials reported..Jail spokeswoman Barbara Cooper said injuries to Thomas Woodell, 27, of the 2000 block of Edmondson Ave., were not life-threatening.Mr. Woodell was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital for stab wounds to his chest, lower back and arm. He was reported in stable condition last night, Ms. Cooper said.No suspect or weapon was found immediately, prison officials said.

A 16-year-old boy was in critical condition last night after he tried to strangle himself in his cell at the Baltimore City Detention Center on Monday. A correctional officer found the inmate hanging from the bars of his cell, his neck tied to the bars by a scarf, about 2: 45 p.m., said Barbara Cooper, a spokeswoman for the detention center. The inmate was in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. On May 6, he was charged as an adult with assault, second-degree rape and a third-degree sex offense, and had been held in lieu of $20,000 bail since May 7, said LaMont W. Flanagan, commissioner of Pretrial Detention and Services for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

Downtown Baltimore's campus of ancient-looking prison buildings, several of which date to the 1800s, is slated for a major face-lift as the state moves forward with plans for two new detention centers that would cost more than $100 million each. A state architectural board is scheduled to review today the design for a five-story, 180-bed detention center for teens facing adult criminal charges. Construction of the glassy, modern building along East Monument Street could begin next summer.

The 40,000 men and women held in Baltimore jails each year could receive speedier access to medical care and see improved sanitation conditions under a settlement between state officials and prisoner rights advocates filed Tuesday in federal court. Over the years, the advocates have documented what they say are dire problems at the Baltimore City Detention Center and the Central Booking and Intake Center: A longtime diabetic died after not receiving insulin. An asthmatic died because jail employees thought he was faking his condition and didn't give him an inhaler.

A Baltimore circuit judge, who has three times been the subject of judicial disciplinary investigations, ordered a spectator to jail for 10 days for crying out "love you" to her handcuffed brother in the courtroom - and then reversed himself after a public defender spoke up on her behalf. As Tamika Clevenger left a Baltimore courtroom Friday, she shouted, "Love you, Nick," which set off Judge Alfred Nance. He ordered a sheriff to pull Clevenger from the hallway and found the 24-year-old in contempt.

Anyone looking for Marcus Antwan Pearson knew to find him on the edge of Normal Avenue, a small, hopeless stretch of one-way street pointing toward Harford Road in North Baltimore. Here, he dealt crack cocaine alongside other young men in T-shirts and baggy jeans, red bandannas hanging like flags from their back pockets. In a day, he could make $1,700, which he spent on cheap hotels and feel-good highs from Ecstasy, marijuana and women. Pearson had grown up tall - 6-foot-2 - and narrow in East Baltimore, where he was born.

Police investigate deaths of two men in city City police are investigating the killing of two men who died last week in separate incidents. Wilbert Flowers, 31, who was shot three times in the head July 28, succumbed to his injuries Aug. 25, police said. He was found lying on the ground in the 800 block of East 43rd St. off York Road and was taken to Sinai Hospital with critical injuries. He died at a local hospice, and his death was ruled a homicide Aug. 26. Floyd Jones, 56, was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital at 3 p.m. that day suffering from head injuries and was later pronounced dead.

A Baltimore man accused of fatally stabbing his wife during an argument will be arraigned tomorrow on attempted first- and second-degree murder and assault charges. Leroy Mayo, 45, of the 400 block of N. Patterson Park Ave., was scheduled to appear before Judge Lynn Stewart at the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse. He was indicted by a city grand jury Jan. 2. Mayo and his wife Sherelle were allegedly arguing in their home last Dec. 6 when he became enraged and attacked her with a knife from the kitchen, according to prosecutors.

Maryland State Police and correctional officials are investigating the fatal stabbing Thursday night of a man who was being held on gun charges in the Baltimore City Detention Center, according to a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The victim was identified as Kenneth Robinson, 20, who lived in the 3100 block of Belle Ave. in Northwest Baltimore. Rick Binetti, the spokesman, released few details of the attack. He said it occurred about 7 p.m. inside the state-run detention center on East Eager Street.

A correctional officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center has been arrested and charged with drug offenses after another officer saw marijuana being passed to a prisoner, according to a statement yesterday by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. According to court documents, Tonyette Yeargin, 19, of Northeast Baltimore was arrested Saturday on charges that include possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and delivery of illegal contraband. The statement says a correctional officer witnessed the incident and notified authorities.