Detention Center

For years, lawmakers and child advocates have been urging Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services to speed up the process of getting troubled youths out of the state's overcrowded juvenile lockups and into residential treatment facilities where they can get help. And year after year, the answer is always the same: There aren't enough treatment slots for all the kids who need them. So it was already more than a twice-told tale when DJS Secretary Sam Abed appeared before the state Board of Public Works recently and said he is considering expanding the size of some privately run residential treatment programs because of the shortage of beds at state facilities.

An inmate serving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree murder walked out of a Baltimore detention facility on Friday morning, never reported to his scheduled work-release job and was considered escaped by Friday afternoon, according to Maryland State Police. Jermaine Jeter, 30, left the Baltimore Pre-Release Unit at about 10:30 a.m., and was supposed to arrive for work at an area Checkers restaurant at 12:30 p.m., according to police. He never did, nor did he arrive back at the unit at 3 p.m., as he was scheduled to do, police said.

A Dundalk woman who was sentenced last week to 60 years in prison in her husband's murder pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting an officer at the Baltimore County Detention Center last August, said Deputy State's Attorney John P. Cox. Jaclyn J. Martin, 31, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor second-degree assault in an altercation with a woman officer on Aug. 21 and was sentenced to the time she has served since the charge was filed on Aug. 31. ...

A month after being evicted from a park near the Inner Harbor, members of Occupy Baltimore sought Monday afternoon to establish a five-day encampment at the site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. As Maryland State Police watched, protestors began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and labeled "school" — on the site near the city's complex of jails and prisons. About 50 protestors were at the site by late afternoon. State police at the site would not say whether the five-day encampment would be allowed.

Maryland State Police sought Monday evening to work out a peaceful solution with Occupy Baltimore protesters who were building an encampment at the site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. As troopers watched, several protesters began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and representing a schoolhouse — inside the fenced site at East Madison and Graves streets near the city's complex of jails and prisons. But state police spokesman Greg Shipley said Occupy members were not permitted to erect a structure on the property, which is owned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Maryland State Police arrested six members of Occupy Baltimore Monday evening for allegedly trespassing on the state-owned site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. The arrests of four men and two women came about two hours after they began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and representing a schoolhouse — inside the fenced site at East Madison and Graves streets near the city's complex of jails and prisons. State police spokesman Greg Shipley said the six individuals were told they were entering private property, which is owned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

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 guard at the Harford County Detention Center found a noose in an inmate's cell, but the inmate said he had no intention of using it. Around 3 p.m. May 15, a corrections employee was making rounds at the jail when he found a noose made out of a bedsheet attached to the bed in the cell, according to an official report of the incident from the Harford County Sheriff's Office which operates the jail. Upon finding the noose, guards immediately put suicide prevention policies into effect.

State prison officials are reducing the size of a proposed youth jail in East Baltimore, a move that could delay by a year construction of the $70 million detention center originally designed to hold up 230 young offenders. The announcement comes after advocate groups opposed to the facility — who say money would be better spent on other programs — commissioned a study that shows the number of teen arrests is projected to decline over the next three decades. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a nonprofit dedicated to juvenile justice research based in Oakland, Calif., released a report on Thursday concluding that just 117 beds will be needed over the next 30 years under current sentencing guidelines and policies.