Doggett

Authorities were searching yesterday for a state prison inmate who escaped this week from a work crew in Baltimore. Corrections officials met with the inmate's wife, who received a surprise telephone call from him telling her that he had escaped from the Baltimore City Correctional Center and was coming to find her. Roderick Dunham, 30, who had served most of a five-year sentence for handgun violations, slipped away from a work crew at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday,...

About 130 inmates at a prison in Hagerstown staged a 30-hour protest this week over living conditions, refusing to return food trays and blocking windows of their cell doors so correctional officers could not see inside, prison officials confirmed yesterday. The protest at Roxbury Correctional Institution was over restrictions on personal items prisoners are allowed to keep in their cells, according to Major Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Correction. She said the protest began at 5 a.m. Wednesday when inmates refused to return their trays after breakfast and blocked their door windows.

Jessup Correctional Institution was locked down after an inmate stabbed an officer last night, a Maryland Department of Safety and Correctional Services spokeswoman said. The officer is hospitalized. A homemade knife thought to have been used in the stabbing was recovered, said Priscilla Doggett, the spokeswoman. About 5:15 p.m., the 40-year-old officer was escorting a 20-year-old inmate from his cell when the inmate failed to comply with an order, Doggett said. He stabbed the officer in the upper torso and face before other officers subdued him, she said.

An inmate was stabbed to death Tuesday at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup, state officials said. Robert George, 29, was stabbed in the chest while returning to his cell block from lunch, said Capt. Priscilla Doggett, spokeswoman for the Division of Correction. George was serving a three-year sentence for larceny. Doggett said corrections officials have a suspect but had not filed charges early yesterday evening. A search for the weapon had begun, she said. The prison was locked down and closed to visitors yesterday, and will be again today, Doggett said.

A 26-year-old inmate at the Maryland House of Correction was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center late Tuesday after a stabbing in a fight that injured his chest and neck, prison officials said. The fight at 8:45 p.m. in a prison dormitory caused a partial lockdown of the maximum-security prison, said Capt. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Division of Correction. The man, whose name was not released pending notification of family, is serving a 14-year sentence, Doggett said.

A 26-year-old inmate at the Maryland House of Correction was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center late Tuesday after a stabbing in a fight that injured his chest and neck, prison officials said. The fight at 8:45 p.m. in a prison dormitory caused a partial lockdown of the maximum-security prison, said Capt. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Division of Correction. The man, whose name was not released pending notification of family, is serving a 14-year sentence for drugs and weapons violations, Doggett said.

Inmates at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup remained in lockdown status yesterday after simultaneous assaults on three officers Saturday night. The incident began about 9:20 p.m. as two corrections officers closed down the gymnasium, said Capt. Priscilla Doggett, a prison spokeswoman. An inmate sneaked behind one of the officers and struck him on the head, she said, then pulled out a shank and grabbed a female officer by the collar. The female officer escaped, Doggett said, and her calls for help drew officers from other areas of the prison to help subdue the inmate and recover his homemade knife.

A Hagerstown prison was locked down after minor fights in two locations yesterday, a Division of Corrections spokeswoman said. Maj. Priscilla Doggett, the spokeswoman, said she was not aware of any injuries caused by the fights at the Maryland Correctional Training Center, a medium-security prison that houses 2,000 inmates. No one was taken to the hospital for treatment, she said. She declined to comment about whether tensions between gangs were a factor in yesterday's fight. The incident was under investigation, Doggett said.

Here's what has to be some bad news for the folks at Maryland's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services: Priscilla Doggett is sticking to her guns. Last week, I wrote about all those questions still unanswered in the death of corrections Officer David McGuinn, who was fatally stabbed in July of 2006 at the Maryland House of Correction. The House of Correction has since been shut down and its staff and inmates dispersed throughout the system. The prison is gone, but allegations that McGuinn was on an inmate hit list, had been threatened and reassigned off the housing units and then put back in the housing units, remain.

Authorities were searching yesterday for a 20-year-old inmate who cut a hole through a fence to escape from a a minimum security prison in Jessup. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Correction, said Morris Johnson was discovered missing during a routine count at the Jessup Pre-Release Unit about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Johnson has been in jail since November 2004, when he received a seven-year sentence for unarmed robbery, she said. His last known address was in Berlin on the Eastern Shore, she said.