Central Booking

AFTER much vitriolic wrangling, a blueprint finally emerged last week for opening a full-time court at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center. But nothing will happen unless Gov. Parris N. Glendening and the General Assembly allocate sufficient funds to implement the plan July 1. Despite the pricetag of $10 million, funding the plan should not be a big problem in these fat and happy times. But it could be when such an expenditure package is proposed just four weeks before the General Assembly adjourns.

Allen Adkins would not be swayed. The Baltimore police officer looked over his fellow officers glued to computer screens in the bowels of the Central Booking and Intake Center, at his partner swigging chocolate milk and praising technology, and made the following pronouncement:"You ain't getting me to change my mind."I'm very anti-computer. The world is too dependent on them. People don't have enough confidence in what's up here," Adkins said, tapping the side of his head.As he spoke, narcotics Detective Michael Caperoon, who has been on the force 16 years, breezed by. A fan of the booking system, he'd been at Central Booking less than an hour.

On Lt. Debra Sisco-Watts' computer inside Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, the names of a dozen people who have been held for more than 15 hours stood out in red text at the top of the screen. The names of dozens more were below in black. This slight, but important, difference in color and location is her signal to pay extra attention so that a complicated booking process doesn't bog down. The names in red were the problem. "If I don't have a document, I'll call a liaison," said Sisco-Watts, who oversees an early warning system on the booking floor and was discussing some of the things that can cause delays.

DO NOT be distracted by the histrionics of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Chief District Judge Martha F. Rasin. The important thing is that both of them have proposed a way to eliminate the longstanding bottleneck at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center. A compromise can -- and must -- be worked out. Ms. Rasin says she's ready to post a judge at Central Booking va01 five days a week. Mr. O'Malley wants one every day. Seven-day coverage, including holidays, makes the most sense.

MARYLAND'S TWO top jurists' reluctant about-face on assigning a judge to Baltimore's jail is a move in the right direction. But until the details are worked out, this seeming concession might fairly be viewed as little more than a way to save the judiciary from the legislature's threatened budget ax.Chief District Judge Martha F. Rasin has amply documented her opposition to assigning a judge to Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center. Her views have not changed. "I stand by my assessment that it is not the best use of judicial resources," she told a legislative hearing in Annapolis on Tuesday.

LET'S HOPE that yesterday's deal for a full-time court at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center is a real reform and not just a negotiating ploy. Too much time has already been wasted on bureaucratic wrangling in this city where slayings are rampant and the criminal-justice system allows many murderers to go unpunished. "We are finally moving forward," Mayor Martin O'Malley said of Chief District Judge Martha F. Rasin's "conceptual" willingness to place a judge at the intake center five days a week.

Built a decade ago, the state-run Central Booking and Intake Center in downtown Baltimore was supposed to be the $56 million answer to gridlock in the city's criminal justice system, designed to speed an antiquated process of booking suspects. Instead, law enforcement officials say, the facility has only made the initial stages of arrest and detention more cumbersome, frustrating police stuck for hours processing prisoners instead of patrolling, and keeping people arrested on petty crimes jailed for hours or even days longer than legally allowed.

THE CHANGE is so amazing Commissioner LaMont Flanagan can scarcely believe it. After years of dangerous overcrowding, the Central Booking and Intake Center is below its capacity of 811 inmates.There are several reasons. Most important are these: More poor defendants are being released to await trial because they have access to free lawyers who can argue on their behalf. And judges operating a court at central booking have sped up resolution of cases that otherwise would have dragged on for weeks.

Central Booking and Intake Center in Baltimore is holding about 300 more inmates than it is designed for, officials said yesterday, raising concerns about possible violence. The facility, which has a capacity of 895 inmates, was housing 1,209 yesterday. Most of the extra prisoners are sleeping on the floor in "boats," plastic shells that can hold bedding. Jail officials and prison advocates worry that the extra inmates could lead to logistical problems and violence among inmates. At this time last year, the jail had extra space.

STATE'S ATTORNEY Patricia C. Jessamy says insufficient funds may force her to delay for another year a crucial reform to unclog Baltimore's gridlocked courts."