City Jail

When I read about an effort in the Baltimore City Council to obtain corporate sponsorship for city buildings and property, I could not resist making a list of possible new appellations and potential partnerships for our town. One of the first pieces of municipal property that came to mind was the Shot Tower. Perhaps I thought about it because I can see it from my desk, if I lean back in my chair as if I am taking a snooze (a posture I often assume in the late afternoon). From my vantage point, not much has been happening at the tower other than an American flag occasionally flying atop it (which was, at one point earlier this year, inexplicably replaced with a smiley-face flag)

The motorist who slammed into the back of a Baltimore police car that struck an officer and sent her plunging over the side of elevated Interstate 83 has been convicted of three traffic offenses, closing one chapter of a horrific crash that has ended the officer's career. A District judge fined Robert R. Vanderford $260, assessed three points against his license, ordered him to perform 250 hours of community service at a city police station, and, upon the insistence of the victim, ordered him to spend two days in the city jail.

IF THE BALTIMORE City Council approves the new, city-owned $305 million downtown convention center hotel, the O'Malley administration should put in place a smartly coordinated, two-year work force development plan to turn some of the city's most chronically unemployed adults into a proud, drug-clean and well-trained staff for the facility. What the city needs is a deep reach into its underclass with between 300 and 400 jobs to Baltimoreans who show genuine willingness to change and get into the mainstream.

Eighteen days after his marijuana-possession arrest, one of our clients, a 25-year-old Baltimore man, remained in jail at taxpayer expense. The defendant, a veteran of the war in Iraq, never failed to appear in court and had only one previous conviction for using marijuana, which resulted in his current probation. But he was still incarcerated at the city's Central Booking and Intake Center, simply because he could not afford his $1,000 bail. Maintaining a pretrial jail population is costly.

One witness spent 163 days, including Christmas, in jail waiting to testify in an oft-delayed murder trial. A witness in another deadly shooting racked up 24 days over the holidays as he waited to testify. Now both are asking to be compensated for their time behind bars, and state law says they are entitled to it. The section of the Maryland Code that provides for witnesses to be detained if they refuse to cooperate with authorities also specifies that they be paid $10 for each day of confinement.

Diana Pilleris said Jeff Cupp broke into her apartment and stole $200. Baltimore police arrested him, charging him with burglary and destruction of property, and he spent three days in the city jail. The day after he posted bail, Cupp jumped on an airplane and flew to Germany with his girlfriend. He failed to appear for his trial, and a judge promptly issued a warrant seeking his arrest. That was Sept. 15, 1981. The warrant was never served, and most of the paperwork appears to have been lost.

One of the more reassuring sounds of my youth was that of a hickory night stick tapping the pavement.Some 40 years ago, the city seemed more quiet. And about once an hour came that sound made by Officer Joe as he tapped the cement sidewalk with his nightstick as he walked his beat. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.Baltimore was then a city of foot patrols, corner police call boxes, gas lamp lighters and neighbors who saw and heard everything.The sound the walking cop made seemed to bounce all over the neighborhood on a hot and humid July night.

In the black market of Maryland's prisons and jails, where the right price can secure cellphones and drugs, transactions unfold through a complex system of currency. Among the key elements: 14-digit codes, prepaid debit cards and text messages. One brand of cards - Green Dot - is so ubiquitous that it has become part of the lexicon on the inside. The recent federal indictment of two dozen inmates and corrections officers in an alleged Black Guerrilla Family corruption scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center notes several instances in which suspects refer to "dots" in transactions.

Corrections officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were preparing for a middle-of-the-night search of jail cells, aimed at rooting out drugs, cellphones, weapons and any other contraband inmates had stashed away. But the officers weren't the only ones getting ready. Hours before the planned checks in January, an FBI affidavit says, word reached Tavon White, an inmate who prosecutors say reigned as the jailhouse leader of a violent gang called the Black Guerrilla Family. White's alleged tipster, according to court records: a corrections officer at the jail.

Several Maryland correctional officers witnessed Davon Cole, 19, strangle a cellmate at the Baltimore City Detention Center Monday night, according to court documents charging Cole with first- and second-degree murder and assault. The suspect "disregarded the officers' orders" to release Xavier Tilghman, 21, the documents state, and officers had to enter the cell to pull him off the victim. Cole had Tilghman pinned to the floor with his "arm wrapped tightly around Tilghman's neck," the officers told investigators.