Central Booking

Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning figures that Carroll authorities could have quickly identified a suspect -- who had given a bogus name after his arrest on theft charges -- if the county had central booking. "If we had had central booking in place, we would have learned who he was in a flash," said Tregoning, alluding to the case of Charles Clayton Chandler, 49, of Hagerstown, whom they called "John Doe" until learning his identity.Chandler was arrested in Mount Airy on Aug. 18 about the time four men were at large after escaping from Pennsylvania prisons.

A top official in the state agency that runs Baltimore's jail facilities is taking over the daily management of the Central Booking and Intake Center, whose warden chose to retire this week despite being offered another position, according to state corrections officials. Howard Ray, deputy commissioner of the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, was named acting warden at a facility that has been wracked by problems, including the beating death of an inmate by correctional officers last month and complaints of crowding and deplorable conditions.

The state's year-old Central Booking and Intake Center has had three apparent suicides in the past four months -- an unusually high number -- but officials say their screening and monitoring procedures are not to blame.In each case, the inmate was found hanging with a bedsheet around his neck that had been attached to the top bunk of his cell.In the latest incident, Norman E. Soaper, 21, was found dead in the booking center's north tower about 1 p.m. Friday. Soaper of Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, had last been seen about 45 minutes earlier when he received his lunch, said Barbara Cooper, a spokeswoman for the booking center.

The FBI is monitoring the state probe into last weekend's homicide of a man detained at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, but the federal government has not decided whether to launch its own investigation. After the conclusion of the state investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division will decide whether the FBI should get involved, said Barry Maddox, an FBI spokesman. Yesterday, the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called for the FBI to investigate.

A 51-year-old Randallstown man jailed at Central Booking and Intake Center in Baltimore on charges of theft and failure to appear in court died yesterday after an altercation with guards that began after he refused to go to his cell, state prison officials said. Relatives of prisoner Raymond Keith Smoot said he was "savagely beaten" by guards Saturday night. At a news conference they arranged at a niece's home, family members provided photos they took after Smoot's initial treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital; the photos show his face covered in bruises, his eyes blackened and blood-soaked gauze in his mouth.

Late last week, a small group of prisoners at the state's new Central Booking and Intake Center was suspended between incarceration and freedom -- victims of a literal clog in the system, a stopped-up pneumatic tube.The tube system, designed to send vital paperwork from floor to floor in the new $56 million high-tech jail, got stuck -- and the prisoners with it. Somewhere in the system were the papers that showed they had made bail or otherwise were ready for release.To the prisoners, families, bail bond providers and defense lawyers whose criticisms of the new center have grown, it was no surprise.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that the city can share its "concerns and recommendations" in a lawsuit over delays at the Central Booking and Intake Center, even as he suggested that the Police Department's arrest policies may contribute to the problem. Judge John M. Glynn allowed the city to present its side in the case as a "friend of the court," but he delayed ruling on whether to include it as a plaintiff in the suit filed by the public defender's office against the state-run jail.

A STRANGE thing happened in Annapolis last week: Two powerful budget leaders told the General Assembly that embargoed funds should be released because the judiciary had agreed to post a judge five days a week at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center. The next day, after $8.9 million had been unfrozen, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell corrected Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman and Del. Howard P. Rawlings. He thanked them for the money but told them there was no deal. Instead, he said the judiciary had only agreed to take Mayor Martin O'Malley's plan for a full-time court "to the interested parties" for further discussion.

With excessive delays at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center triggering the release of more than 80 criminal suspects in recent months, a city Circuit Court judge demanded yesterday that state corrections officials provide a written report in 30 days of their plans to improve efficiency at the state-run facility. Judge John M. Glynn also expressed concern that only political action - not court intervention - could ultimately resolve the problems at Central Booking, which processes about 100,000 people a year.

The city sought to join a lawsuit yesterday against Baltimore's booking center, accusing the state of mismanaging the crowded facility and hampering police efforts to reduce crime. In the past three months, more than 80 suspects have been released without charges from Central Booking and Intake Center because they failed to receive a hearing within 24 hours of arrest. In a court motion filed yesterday, city lawyers blame the state for the long-standing problems. "If the state can't figure out how to follow the law that dictates that they should operate the city centralized booking facility ... then we're all in danger," said Kristen Mahoney, chief of technical services for the city Police Department.