City Jail

A nyone 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.

Beyond the iron gate, the fence and the razor wire, 10 inmates in maroon uniforms sit in stillness, listening to the serene sounds of sitar music. Eyes closed, hands folded, they await the tiny pricks of acupuncture needles being inserted delicately in their ears. Ancient Chinese medicine came to Baltimore's jail 16 years ago with the promise of curbing the cravings of drug addiction. Since then, acupuncture has been the centerpiece of a treatment program that serves nearly 700 inmates each year.

Annie Mae Davis, a retired nurse who treated patients at the old Provident Hospital and Baltimore City Jail, died Monday of cancer complications at Northwest Hospital Center. The Woodlawn resident was 87. She was born Annie Mae Mosley in Perdue, Ala., and graduated as class valedictorian from Perdue Hill Industrial High School. Family members said that her teachers recommended that she go into nursing. In 1939, she completed her nursing education at Flint Goodridge Hospital in Jackson, Miss.

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.

After a quarter-century of feeding the hungry next to the heart of Baltimore's Roman Catholic community, Our Daily Bread is about to move to a new home - on the edge of downtown, adjacent to the city's jail. Renamed the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, the $15 million, 52,000-square- foot facility will expand the offerings of the city's largest soup kitchen far beyond feeding Baltimore's homeless and poor to provide such services as job training. Patrons will "basically see the same meal, but they'll have increased opportunities," says Dennis Murphy, director of the new facility.

Three men have been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing more than a year ago of an inmate at the Baltimore City Detention Center, authorities said. The victim, Anthony E. Conaway, 41, of the 4000 block of Ayrdale Ave., was being held without bail on charges of burglary, theft and violation of probation when he was attacked by three men and stabbed on March 13, 2006. He died two days later at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force arrested two men on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with Conaway's death, and served papers on a third man in jail on federal charges.

Three correctional officers fired in the aftermath of the fatal of a detainee at downtown Central Booking and Intake Center are appealing their terminations and will have their grievances heard before an appeals board Monday, according to officials from the Maryland Correctional Law Enforcement Union. Robert Hudley, a former lieutenant at Central Booking, and Kene Jones, a former officer, were among eight correctional officers fired after Raymond K. Smoot was beaten inside his cell in May 2005.

Maryland Public Safety Secretary Mary Ann Saar yesterday named Howard Ray Jr. acting commissioner for the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services. Ray, the former deputy of the division, succeeds William J. Smith, who resigned in August. He will oversee daily operations at the Baltimore City Detention Center and Central Booking and Intake Center.

A consultant's report on Baltimore's booking center offers a wide range of fixes for the historically crowded jail, such as incorporating new technology, adding more televisions for inmates and conducting reviews of arrest and release practices of police and prosecutors. The report had been heavily redacted for its release last month, though it had included the conclusion that "no one was in charge" of ensuring the prompt processing of detainees at the state-run Central Booking and Intake Center last year.

The U.S. Justice Department has returned to the Baltimore city jail and booking center to determine whether progress has been made since its investigators issued a scathing report three years ago decrying problems with medical care, sanitation and other troubling conditions for inmates. "They are looking to get an accurate understanding and update on the current conditions at the institution," said Karen V. Poe, a spokeswoman with the state public safety department. "It's not an adversarial situation.