Central Booking

MAYORAL candidate Carl Stokes stood in front of the city's central booking facility Thursday afternoon, pleading for those who seldom have anyone speak out for them: jail and prison inmates.Stokes wanted to know exactly why Patricia Sharon Gardner died Aug. 7 in one of the cells of his city's central booking facility. He found out about Gardner's death at an East Baltimore rally last week, when a woman pulled him aside and asked for his help."She told me Gardner and two other women she knew had died at central booking in the last three months," Stokes told the assembled media folks.

PUBLIC OFFICIALS like to point fingers when something is wrong. Prison administrators, court officials and the police were supposed to combine talents at the new Central Booking and Intake Center to make the arrest of crime suspects a smoother, speedier process. They have, to a large extent. But the facility's shortcomings have gained it a sorry reputation for which all those involved in its operation must share blame.Tired of hearing police claim they have to spend hours on end at Central Booking after making an arrest, Lamont W. Flanagan, state commissioner of the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, had several surveys done.

Vernell Wooden sat before the judge in the courtroom at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, looking for a break. His crime: carrying an open bottle of Banana Red wine on city streets.If the 2-month-old central booking court were operating the way criminal justice officials have wanted, Wooden's case might be closed by now. And Wooden, who has been in jail since May 8 awaiting trial, wouldn't be costing taxpayers $55 a day at central booking for an alcohol charge.But the court isn't working the way officials had planned.

The U.S. Office for Human Research Protections is one watchdog whose bite is louder than its bark. Baltimore has finally been recognized as the bottleneck of the East Coast. "We can't go on meeting like this," the Eight said to the din. The House has approved faith-based politics. At last, District Court will be getting a judge who can be assigned to Central Booking.

The trial of three correctional officers accused of beating to death Raymond K. Smoot inside his cell at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center has been postponed until September. Yesterday, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge said he needs more information before ruling on a defense motion for a change of venue. Attorneys for Dameon C. Woods, Nathan D. Colbert and James L. Hatcher argued yesterday at a hearing that their clients would not be able to receive a fair trial in Baltimore.

A man charged with assault was mistakenly released from the Central Booking and Intake Center after an employee did not enter into the facility's computer system that the man was wanted on a warrant, a state prisons spokesman said yesterday.Leonard A. Sipes Jr., spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said the release Monday of Donald R. Walkins, 21, of Southwest Baltimore was the fourth such incident at Central Booking since October.Sipes said three other mistaken releases occurred at the Maryland Penitentiary and the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center, both in Baltimore.

ANOTHER OVERCROWDING crisis is looming at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center. The lockup is said to be so cramped that officials at a recent meeting joked about perhaps having to house pretrial suspects on barges in the harbor. This is no laughing matter. As arrests have increased over the past year, so apparently have the numbers of suspects who either don't qualify for bail or don't have the money for it. They end up spending an average of 86 days at Central Booking before their first appearance before a judge, according to the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

An East Baltimore man wanted in four armed robberies was mistakenly released last week from the Central Booking and Intake Center after city police failed to discover the outstanding warrants against him. William E. Bostic, 41, was arrested July 10 for being in a vacant house and was taken to Central Booking for processing. City prosecutors declined to charge Bostic, and jail officials released him the next day. But police said Bostic - who is charged in warrants with armed robbery in four incidents in Baltimore and is wanted in Baltimore County - should never have been released.

A Harford County man accused of walking onto the track at Pimlico Race Course and standing in front of eight thundering thoroughbreds Saturday was charged with assault and other counts yesterday, city police said.Lee Chang Ferrell, 22, of the 100 block of Waldon Road in Abingdon was charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, trespassing, two counts of resisting arrest and an alcohol-related offense, said Barbara Miner, supervisor of records Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center.

When inmates at the Central Booking and Intake Center in Baltimore were stacking up like planes at a busy airport, state corrections officials defended the agency. The state-run facility, overwhelmed by aggressive policing strategies in Baltimore, literally couldn't process inmates fast enough. But state Public Safety Secretary Mary Ann Saar argued persuasively that no one entity could be blamed because "the entire booking procedure is dependent upon a cooperative effort." Her agency isn't being very cooperative now. Ms. Saar refused last Tuesday to release the entirety of a consultant's report that her lawyers had offered up as evidence of the state's commitment to improve the central booking system.