NEWS
April 29, 2013
Apparently Tavon White, the leader of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center, has been running the prison for some time ("Corruption alleged at jail," April 24). To connect the dots between violent crime, simply follow the money - it leads to the group's drug trafficking. Power, and the money that generates it, drive illegal businesses. Excitement, money and power are pumped up on sound systems and flat screen TVs across the country. That makes it sexy to sell and use drugs and even to be a gang member.
NEWS
April 29, 2013
When Laura Neuman took over John Leopold's position as Anne Arundel County executive, her first order of business was to fire his existing staff, saying his proven corruption could have only existed through the connivance of those around him. That was very insightful on her part, but doesn't the same reasoning apply to the corruption uncovered at the Baltimore City Detention Center ("Corruption alleged at jail," April 24)? How could all of this have gone on for so long unless many people deliberately turned their backs to what was happening?
NEWS
April 28, 2013
I have to applaud Sen. Lisa Gladden for her creative assertion that if future female correctional officers are hired on the basis of having a college degree they would be immune to the sexual advances of male inmates ("Guards protected from discipline, FBI says," April 25). Apparently, Senator Gladden feels that a woman who is better educated than a male inmate who is high school drop-out would be immune to his charms. "If you had college graduates, four-year graduates, do you think they're going to be messing around with a guy who dropped out of high school?"
NEWS
Dan Rodricks | April 27, 2013
Let me start with this: If not for the absurd war on drugs — by far, the nation's longest war — we would not have had so many killings on the streets of Baltimore over the years. The United States leads the world in incarceration. Without the war on drugs, thousands of men and women would be home with their families instead of in cellblocks; they might even be employed. There would be less social dysfunction and community upheaval. There would be less crime overall. If not for the war on drugs, now in its fifth decade, we would not have gangsters, like the reputed Black Guerrilla Family leaders Eric Brown and Tavon White.
NEWS
By Ian Duncan, Kevin Rector and Scott Calvert, The Baltimore Sun | April 27, 2013
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.
NEWS
By Pamela Wood, The Baltimore Sun | April 27, 2013
In a career that's spanned more than four decades in four states, Gary D. Maynard has dealt with inmate sex scandals, prison riots, suicides and shrinking public safety budgets. Last week, the Maryland corrections secretary faced a bank of TV cameras and the latest crisis in his long career. This one would make national news and prompt an outcry from across the state: Gang members allegedly built a wide-ranging criminal enterprise in the Baltimore City Detention Center, dealing drugs and impregnating correctional officers.