Detention Center

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

The Baltimore City Detention Center had the nation's second-highest rate of sexual contact between jail staff and inmates, according to a U.S. Department of Justice study released less than a month after federal prosecutors accused corrections officers at the jail of sleeping with gang members. The report, released Thursday, also found higher-than-average rates of inmate abuse at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. Women in prison are generally subjected to more abuse than men, and nearly 13 percent of inmates at that facility reported being abused either by a fellow inmate or staff member.

The 19-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing Dennis Lane allegedly told investigators that his girlfriend had instructed him to kill her father and his fiancee, specifying the number of times each was to be stabbed in the throat - 10 for him and 15 for her. Jason Anthony Bulmer charging documents In a conversation at school hours before the Ellicott City blogger and businessman was killed, Jason Anthony Bulmer said, 14-year-old Morgan...

State corrections secretary Gary D. Maynard ordered polygraph tests Friday of top administrators and "integrity reviews" of every employee at the Baltimore City Detention Center in an effort to root out corruption at the jail. Maynard has moved his office to the facility from Towson to oversee a review of leadership, staff and operations amid allegations that the Black Guerrilla Family gang developed broad power inside the jail, a spokesman said. More than two dozen inmates and correctional officers in the city jail are charged in a scheme that officials say involved the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, including cellphones, into the facility.

The Baltimore City Detention Center had the nation's second-highest rate of sexual contact between jail staff and inmates, according to a U.S. Department of Justice study released less than a month after federal prosecutors accused corrections officers at the jail of sleeping with gang members. The report, released Thursday, also found higher-than-average rates of inmate abuse at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. Women in prison are generally subjected to more abuse than men, and nearly 13 percent of inmates at that facility reported being abused either by a fellow inmate or staff member.

I have lots of questions about the Black Guerrilla Family case, starting with this: Was the warden of the Baltimore City Detention Center asked to approve maternity leave for any of the female correctional officers allegedly impregnated by inmate Tavon "Bulldog" White? I thought it was a pretty good question. A taxpayer's question. According to the U.S. attorney's office, White got four of his jailers pregnant. (Do you think these women knew what was going on before the indictment came down?

An Annapolis man and a Crofton woman were seriously injured Tuesday when the man's car crossed the center line of Defense Highway near the entrance to The Ridges and plowed into another car, county police said.Richard Lewis Gorman, 73, of the 900 block of Schooner Circle was in critical condition yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Carol Jean Kosar-Meadows, 38, of the 2800 block of Bargate Court was in stable condition at Anne Arundel Medical Center.Police said Mr. Gorman was traveling east and Ms. Meadows west when Mr. Gorman's 1991 Buick LeSabre crossed the center line for no apparent reason and smashed into the left front of Ms. Meadows' 1993 Toyota Camry.

Four pretrial inmates at the Baltimore City Detention Center were stabbed by a fellow detainee and taken to hospitals Friday, a spokesman with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said. A fifth man was suffered minor injuries and was treated inside the facility, spokesman Mark A. Vernarelli in a statement. The four others were taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital for non life-threatening injuries. The stabbing occurred in housing for men awaiting trial for crimes allegedly committed in Baltimore City, the statement said.

As you approach Thomas J.S. Waxter Children's Center, a sign cautions that you are under camera surveillance. Notices warn against bringing in contraband - glass bottles, cigarettes, weapons. A metal detector sits in the front hall. You pass through a locked metal door to reach the residential wings. Down the hallway, the staff supervision room is separated from the children by a thick metal cage. On a Wednesday in September, a girl stands shackled in the hall, the cuffs around her hands and ankles connected by a metal chain.

An employee at the Harford County Detention Center was exposed to a substance that investigators believe is narcotic, police said Thursday night. About 5:30 p.m. a female staff member was sorting incoming inmate mail at the detention center in Bel Air when she came into contact with an unknown substance and then started feeling light-headed and experienced a metallic taste, according to a statement by the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The mail room was evacuated and quarantined.

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

I have lots of questions about the Black Guerrilla Family case, starting with this: Was the warden of the Baltimore City Detention Center asked to approve maternity leave for any of the female correctional officers allegedly impregnated by inmate Tavon "Bulldog" White? I thought it was a pretty good question. A taxpayer's question. According to the U.S. attorney's office, White got four of his jailers pregnant. (Do you think these women knew what was going on before the indictment came down?

The federal racketeering and drug charges unveiled this week against 25 inmates and guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center raise serious questions about the state's management of the facility. Investigators detailed a pattern of corruption and criminal behavior that was so widespread that for much of the last few years, the inmates were literally running the asylum. It will take drastic action to root out the crooked corrections officers and incompetent higher-ups responsible for this debacle, but that's only a start.

A Montgomery County elementary school teacher was charged Thursday in Baltimore County for possession of child pornography, police said. Lawrence Joynes, 54, of Dundalk, teaches music at New Hampshire Estates Elementary school in Silver Spring, according to the school's website. Montgomery police will be investigating whether Joynes committed any offenses in that county. A spokesman from the school system did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday morning.

Four pretrial inmates at the Baltimore City Detention Center were stabbed by a fellow detainee and taken to hospitals Friday, a spokesman with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said. A fifth man was suffered minor injuries and was treated inside the facility, spokesman Mark A. Vernarelli in a statement. The four others were taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital for non life-threatening injuries. The stabbing occurred in housing for men awaiting trial for crimes allegedly committed in Baltimore City, the statement said.

Calvin Maddox was buried today, in the city where he won acclaim. The point guard on Dunbar's 1977 and 1978 Maryland Scholastic Association A Conference basketball champions, he was 54 years old. Maddox, who lived in Baltimore, died Nov. 2 after battling diabetes for a number of years. A three-sport standout at Dunbar, he was The Evening Sun's Male Athlete of the Year in 1978, after earning All-Metro honors in basketball, winning the MSA long jump and starring in football as a running back.

Officials at the Baltimore City Detention Center today were investigating the death of an 18-year-old man who may have strangled himself in the institution's hospital ward.Roderick Wade Jackson, of the 600 block of Fremont Ave. in West Baltimore, was found about 4 p.m. Monday in a bathroom in the hospital ward.A rope made from a hospital gown was around his neck and attached to the bathroom door, said Barbara Cooper, a Detention Center spokeswoman.Ms. Cooper could not say why Mr. Jackson was a patient there.

BALTIMORE -- A 29-year old Baltimore City Detention Center prisoner was stabbed as he returned to his cell from recreation time at 9:22 a.m. yesterday, prison officials reported..Jail spokeswoman Barbara Cooper said injuries to Thomas Woodell, 27, of the 2000 block of Edmondson Ave., were not life-threatening.Mr. Woodell was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital for stab wounds to his chest, lower back and arm. He was reported in stable condition last night, Ms. Cooper said.No suspect or weapon was found immediately, prison officials said.

Sun reporter Justin Fenton 's recent coverage of the flagrantly inhumane conditions for the youth at the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC) is a call to action. To find a lasting remedy for this horrific institutional failure, however, we must be clear about its causes. We otherwise risk devoting our energy and resources to a solution that would prove inadequate. Currently the state is debating whether to build a new jail for youth being charged as adults who are held in BCDC.

Maryland public safety secretary Gary D. Maynard insists that complaints about how his agency deals with youthful offenders are overblown and that those that are valid could be solved by building a new $70 million juvenile jail downtown. But recent reports of violence and unsafe conditions at the adult facility where minors charged with serious crimes are currently held - and the fact that federal officials haven't visited the place in more than two years to certify that that Maryland is honoring its commitment to improve conditions there - suggest the problem goes deeper than that.