Correctional

Colleagues of slain Maryland Correctional Officer David W. McGuinn have done his memory a disservice. In trying to explain away the beating of an inmate, they may have seriously compromised an investigation into the officer's murder. Add to that the slipshod handling of a piece of evidence, and the prosecution's job of convicting his accused killers becomes exceedingly harder. That's no formula for justice. The aftermath of Officer McGuinn's July 25, 2006 death at the House of Correction in Jessup was a chaotic and dangerous affair, as reported by The Sun's Greg Garland.

State officials have abruptly shut down the Maryland House of Correction, an antiquated and notorious maximum-security prison in Jessup where inmate violence had spiraled out of control and corruption had run rampant. Prison administrators had planned to convert the 128-year-old prison - where a correctional officer and three inmates have been killed within the past year - to a minimum-security facility in coming months. But the state's top correctional official said yesterday that he began laying plans to close the prison within hours of the non-fatal March 2 stabbing of a correctional officer there.

An investigation of drug trafficking and gang violence at the maximum-security Maryland House of Correction has turned up a surprise -- inmates using cellular phones.Four cellular telephones and a watch with a pager attachment, apparently smuggled into the Jessup prison, were found in recent searches of areas used by convicts. Corrections officers found nearly 2 ounces of marijuana, a half-ounce of heroin and a third of an ounce of crack cocaine in the cell of one gang member, prison officials said.

The personal ad looks like so many others posted on the World Wide Web these days: "I am a 30 year old white male with a heart of gold, who is seeking friendship and pen pals."A snapshot shows a man with an athletic, 6-foot frame, easy smile and boyishly handsome face.He's wearing what appear to be orange hospital scrubs and looks like a guy who would have no trouble eliciting a response from the opposite sex.But Samuel J. Derrick is not your typical lonely heart.He's a convicted killer who in 1987 stabbed a store owner 30 times during a robbery.

Two Patuxent Institution inmates were arrested in a stabbing yesterday at the prison that left another prisoner in serious condition, a state corrections official said.Warren James Courts, 20, formerly of the 3800 block of Cottage Ave. in Baltimore, was stabbed in the neck with a homemade knife, said Leonard A. Sipes Jr., a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Courts was in serious but stable condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Sheriff's Deputy 1st Class Walter Royster, an Army retiree who joined the Detention Center staff nearly two years ago, was selected as Carroll County's Correctional Officer of the Year.Royster, 44, spent 22 years in Army intelligence before retiring as a master sergeant.He lives in Westminster with Rita, his wife of 27 years.Royster worked directly with prisoners as a line officer until last week.On Monday,he began a new assignment as coordinator of the Detention Center's work-release program.

State correctional officials plan to open the doors of the Maryland House of Correction Annex in Jessup today to allow some visitors in to see inmates -- the second step in their move to lift a lockdown that resulted from a melee there last month.Officials plan to bring 15 additional correctional officers and an officer with a police dog from other Maryland prisons to the annex for increased security during the visits. Each inmate will be escorted by two officers, officials said.Because of the time-consuming security measures, some inmates might not see visitors today and will have to wait until tomorrow, officials said.

Faced with a steadily growing population of violent criminals, Maryland's public safety chief is proposing construction of a nearly $50 million maximum-security prison for more than 500 inmates on the grounds of the state's Cumberland correctional complex.Bishop L. Robinson, the secretary of public safety, told legislators yesterday that he is asking Gov. Parris N. Glendening to scrap plans to build a $13 million medium-security unit at Cumberland.Instead, Robinson said, he has asked the governor to budget $2.5 million in his fiscal 1999 budget to begin planning and designing a 512-cell facility at the Western Correctional Institution to house violent criminals.

FIVE YEARS AGO, some of the last inmates from the Maryland Penitentiary's notorious South Wing crossed Madison Street to a high-technology prison of the future, bidding goodbye to 19th-century quarters that had famously been dubbed the "innermost circle of hell."But now that new prison -- the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, better known as "Supermax," designed as the ultimate control unit for the state's most incorrigible prisoners -- is itself being painted as hell of a different sort.

In the heat of summer, Maryland officials are snuffing out one of the few pleasures a state prisoner may still enjoy in his cell -- smoking.Starting July 1, inmates will no longer be allowed to light up anywhere inside the state's 24 prisons, according to a directive issued by Bishop L. Robinson, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.The policy was instituted to comply with the statewide workplace smoking ban that went into effect in March. Prison officials filed for a variance to the ban several months ago to buy time to work out a policy and get inmates used to the idea.

Three correctional officers assigned to the Roxbury Correctional Institution at Hagerstown in Western Maryland could face termination amid allegations of using excessive force against inmates, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said yesterday. The names of and specific allegations against the officers were withheld because of the continuing investigation. The disciplinary action stemmed from an incident last week, said spokesman Rick Binetti. He declined to describe what happened.

For those who had any doubts about the need to shut down the Maryland House of Correction last year, a hearing this week in an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court should convince them it was the right decision. Lawyers for two inmates charged in the murder of Correctional Officer David McGuinn are trying to show that a culture of corruption inside the Jessup prison contributed to the guard's death. And prison investigative reports they have received so far allege misconduct that went beyond a few insiders.

Colleagues of slain Maryland Correctional Officer David W. McGuinn have done his memory a disservice. In trying to explain away the beating of an inmate, they may have seriously compromised an investigation into the officer's murder. Add to that the slipshod handling of a piece of evidence, and the prosecution's job of convicting his accused killers becomes exceedingly harder. That's no formula for justice. The aftermath of Officer McGuinn's July 25, 2006 death at the House of Correction in Jessup was a chaotic and dangerous affair, as reported by The Sun's Greg Garland.

WASHINGTON -- With swelling prison populations cutting into state budgets, lawmakers are exploring ways to ease overcrowding beyond building expensive new correctional facilities. Though the construction of prisons continues as states struggle to provide enough beds for those behind bars, legislators increasingly are looking at other ways to free up space and save money, including expanded programs to help prevent offenders from being incarcerated again, earlier release dates for low-risk inmates and sentencing revisions.

State officials have abruptly shut down the Maryland House of Correction, an antiquated and notorious maximum-security prison in Jessup where inmate violence had spiraled out of control and corruption had run rampant. Prison administrators had planned to convert the 128-year-old prison - where a correctional officer and three inmates have been killed within the past year - to a minimum-security facility in coming months. But the state's top correctional official said yesterday that he began laying plans to close the prison within hours of the non-fatal March 2 stabbing of a correctional officer there.

An inmate wounded a correctional officer with a homemade knife yesterday inside the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, and Gov. Martin O'Malley and prison officials responded by vowing to move swiftly to improve staffing and security within the troubled system. The officer was attempting to put an inmate back in his cell when the man turned and stabbed him seven times in the upper body, prison officials said. The 28-year-old officer had been on the job since November; the 38-year-old inmate, whose name was withheld, is serving a life sentence for murder, officials said.

Amid the steady flow of drugs, tobacco, cell phones and other contraband at the Maryland House of Corrections, officers who strictly enforce the rules end up putting targets on their backs, say former inmates and those who have worked in the Jessup prison. Officer David McGuinn, who was not one to look the other way, was stabbed to death last week by inmates who, according to colleagues, considered his diligence an annoying burden. Since March, three inmates were stabbed to death and two officers were wounded with homemade knives.

Prison authorities are investigating whether heroin smuggled into the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown sickened or caused strange behavior in five inmates. Three of the inmates were taken to a local hospital after they were discovered unresponsive in their cells Tuesday, according to Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Correction. She said test results have confirmed that drugs were in the system of two of the inmates. The test results of the other three inmates are pending, she said.

BALTIMORE Inmate who died had sought OK to take walk, lawyer says Inmate Raymond K. Smoot was trying to talk a guard into letting him make up for missed exercise time in the moments before a fatal altercation with officers, an attorney representing his family says. Attorney A. Dwight Pettit has interviewed witnesses to the May 14 incident at the state-run Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center as part of a wrongful-death lawsuit he plans to file against the state. An internal investigation by the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is in its third week, and six correctional officers remain on paid administrative leave.

An investigation of drug trafficking and gang violence at the maximum-security Maryland House of Correction has turned up a surprise -- inmates using cellular phones.Four cellular telephones and a watch with a pager attachment, apparently smuggled into the Jessup prison, were found in recent searches of areas used by convicts. Corrections officers found nearly 2 ounces of marijuana, a half-ounce of heroin and a third of an ounce of crack cocaine in the cell of one gang member, prison officials said.