Detention Center

Bowling Brook Preparatory School opened its doors in Carroll County in 1957 as a small school for orphans. But by the time 17-year-old Isaiah Simmons died there after being improperly restrained by staff in 2007, Bowling Brook had grown into a large, privately run juvenile detention center housing more than 170 boys. A law passed after Simmons' death capped the number of beds allowed at state-run residential facilities at 48, but left privately run programs open to expansion.

A 24-year-old Columbia man was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in the Howard County detention center for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Elijah Jackson of the 5200 block of Rivendell Lane was running away from police after a fight outside a house party last June when 23 packets of crack cocaine and one packet of powdered cocaine fell out of his hat, prosecutors said. They had asked Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman to sentence Jackson to three years in prison, but Gelfman opted to send him to the detention center out of concern for his safety.

LAUREL - - 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.

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.

WASHINGTON - - As the White House detailed its plans Tuesday to move terrorism suspects to a prison in rural Illinois, congressional opponents emerged as a new obstacle in President Barack Obama's way as he tries to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. In addition to buying a near-empty state prison in Thomson, Ill., to house the current Guantanamo detainees, Obama administration officials announced that they also plan to set up a tribunal courtroom in the facility in order to hold trials for defendants charged before a military commission.

State police have made a third arrest in the carjacking of a Harford County woman this week. Lamont Harrison Jr., 19, was arrested Wednesday near his home on Melwood Court in Edgewood and charged with carjacking, armed robbery, assault, kidnapping and theft. His $1 million bond was revoked Thursday, and he remains in the Harford County Detention Center. Joshua Prince Freeman, 19, of Edgewood and Roberta Antonaccio, 17, of Joppa face the same felony charges in connection with the incident, which began late Monday in Edgewood.

Prison officials are investigating the fatal stabbing of a 28-year-old man Wednesday night at the Baltimore City Detention Center. Kennard Pratt was stabbed several times while leaving a shower to return to his cell about 7 p.m., authorities said. Detention center and medical staff performed CPR and took him to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead. Pratt had been jailed since February, awaiting trial on murder charges. Officials said no motive or suspect had been identified.