Halfway House

Attack stains not just metal, but men, women of valorOh, the irony (re: "Berrigan, others arrested in attack on Guard planes," Dec. 20).These activists, led by the "re-nowned" Philip Berrigan, have once again shown the country why we are able to do things like this and still receive a fair trial.In doing so they have shamed all the men and women of the Armed Forces, past and present, who have gallantly, bravely, proudly and graciously given their time, freedoms and even their lives so that people such as this can degrade the very images of what provides them this very right.

Lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano ended his five-month stint in a federal halfway house in East Baltimore yesterday, upbeat about his personal growth during confinement and looking forward to a full return from his legal purgatory.Standing in the parking lot of the Volunteers of America halfway house -- a former low-rate motel on East Monument Street -- Bereano waved goodbye to a half-dozen detainees who were watching him load his champagne-colored Mercedes-Benz with clothes, lamps and a television.

Moments after Benjamin Scott Garris stabbed to death a counselor at a Towson psychiatric hospital, he called his friend Jane Frances DeCosta and told her, according to another friend, who testified yesterday at DeCosta's trial on charges of involvement in the slaying.Jennifer L. Wells, 16, a student at Carver Center for Arts and Technology, testified in Baltimore County Circuit Court that when she spoke on the phone with DeCosta about 1: 30 a.m. the day of the slaying, the Timonium teen-ager "was pretty much hysterical she seemed scared."

Over the past 14 years, Patrick T. Cook has made one bad choice after another. His criminal record includes convictions for theft, drug possession and distribution and forgery. He blames his mistakes on drugs and alcohol.Now at 34, Cook says he's ready to take responsibility for his actions and make changes. He completed an inpatient drug rehabilitation program, and has been sober for eight months.Cook is making his new start at the Friends in Recovery Home in Sykesville, Carroll County's first halfway house for recovering alcoholics and addicts.

Over the past 14 years, Patrick T. Cook has made one bad choice after another. His criminal record includes convictions for theft, drug possession and distribution and forgery. He blames his mistakes on drugs and alcohol.Now, at 34, Cook says he's ready to take responsibility for his actions and make changes. He has completed an inpatient drug rehabilitation program and has been sober for eight months.Cook is making his new start at the Friends in Recovery Home in Sykesville, Carroll County's first halfway house for recovering alcoholics and addicts.

Twenty years after Charles A. Hopkins killed a Baltimore city councilman and wounded two other people, the state hospital for the criminally insane is recommending that he be granted a conditional release, saying he is "no longer a threat" to society.Lawyers for the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital are drafting terms for a release, which could be filed within a month with a Circuit Court judge, who has the final say.If approved, Hopkins would continue living at a downtown halfway house -- where he has been for the past dozen years -- until 2001, when he could be granted a full release from confinement.

Three times a week, James Harris checks to make sure his roommates have done their chores.The 37-year-old steel worker, a recovering drug addict, shows no mercy toward the seven other former substance abusers in the brick house in Hamilton. The penalty for a messy kitchen, sloppy bathroom or forgotten glass is $15 -- for each infraction."I can dish it out, and I can take it," Harris said during a room-to-room inspection, while recalling the fine he received for leaving a pear core in the sink.

WICHITA, Kan. -- A judge has ordered a Wichita man into a halfway house to lose weight because he blew his court-ordered diet.After a short hearing to determine whether Arthur Younkin had violated his probation by cheating on his diet, Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens offered the 500-pound man a choice on Tuesday: go to prison or go to the halfway house and stick to a 1,200-calorie-a-day diet.Mr. Younkin, upset by what he calls discrimination, reluctantly agreed to go into the Community Corrections residential program and try to lose weight.

A 73-year-old Lothian man convicted of setting his wife on fire in 1985 was released from Crownsville Hospital Center yesterday by an Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge.Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. granted Marcell Parker a conditional release that will allow him to continue living at Omni House, a halfway house in Glen Burnie.Parker, who has been at Omni House for six months, was convicted of assault with intent to maim but found not criminally responsible by Judge Thieme after a trial on Sept.

The Howard County Health Department has received a $629,000 state grant to establish a halfway house for women of child-bearing age who are substance abusers and their children who suffer from neglect or abuse.County health officials expect to receive a formal award letter this week from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene."It's a pretty healthy grant," said Frank McGloin, the county health department's addictions director. "We'll be able to do some good things."At a Tuesday meeting of the county Board of Health, county health officer Dr. Joyce Boyd described the halfway house project and another project, the proposed expansion of an addictions treatment program at the Howard County Detention Center.

Though confident of reaching a new labor agreement before the 2010 season, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell criticized a union report that said the league was highly profitable and therefore the current revenue-sharing system still works. "There's a lot of fiction in that report," Goodell said at his annual "State of the NFL" news conference yesterday in Tampa, Fla. On Thursday, a union-commissioned study showed the average value of franchises has increased from $288 million to $1.04 billion during the past decade, and that teams averaged a $24.7 million profit in the past year - even as the economy took a turn for the worse.

The results of an autopsy on a woman's body found March 20 in Gwynns Falls Park in West Baltimore show that she was strangled, a police spokesman said. About 6 a.m. that day, police received a 911 call from someone who reported seeing a man dump what appeared to be a body onto the ground off the 3600 block of Winterbourne Road and then drive off in an unknown vehicle, said Agent Donny Moses, the spokesman. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, and her body was sent to the medical examiner's office.

Halfway houses ease re-entry into society Halfway houses such as Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center are not intended to restrain violent criminals ("A halfway house full of holes," Feb. 17). As the photograph that accompanies The Sun's article demonstrates, a halfway house is not a jail. Jails are built to separate criminals from society, while halfway houses are designed to integrate criminals into the community. Many halfway house occupants are authorized to leave the facility during working hours, and these facilities feature no razor-wire fences or sharpshooters.

The former inmate at a Baltimore halfway house accused of shooting another man told police that it was relatively easy to leave the facility at night, according to a tape recording played in court yesterday. In Baltimore Circuit Court, prosecutors played the audio recording from May in which Nolan L. Evans insisted to detectives that he never shot Larry Parks. Parks died from his injuries in November 2006. But Evans - son of death row inmate Vernon Lee Evans Jr. - also acknowledged on the tape that he had been able to stay out of the halfway house on East Monument Street at night, and told the homicide detectives that it would be possible for an inmate to spend an entire weekend away from the partially secure facility.

Someone should have been watching Nolan L. Evans. On a night in April 2006 when court records show he was supposed to have been secured inside a halfway house, authorities charge that the convicted felon was able to shoot a man in Northwest Baltimore. Months later, the man died from his injuries. The little-publicized homicide case, scheduled for trial this week, could be another blow to Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center. The Sun reported last month that during a spot-check in April 2007, 10 inmates were discovered missing from the halfway house and that two probationary employees suspected of accepting bribes from those inmates were fired as a result.

Employees at a privately run Baltimore halfway house have allowed federal defendants to leave the secured facility at night in violation of court-ordered restrictions. Officials at the nonprofit Volunteers of America suspect that two employees - who have subsequently been fired - accepted bribes in exchange for letting the defendants out. But despite questions about the integrity of the program, judges continue to send defendants there because there are few other places in Maryland to house minimum-security defendants awaiting federal trials.

A Remington rowhouse, badly damaged in a fire Tuesday that seriously injured a woman, was the scene of a triple killing over a drug dispute more than two years ago. Police and arson investigators have preliminarily determined that the fire at 541 W. 27th St. was caused by an electrical malfunction of a fan, said Officer Troy Harris, a city police spokesman. "First, the shooting and now this. What next?" said Margaret Marousek, 79, who lives next door to the burned building. Marousek said her rowhouse, where she lives with her sister, had smoke and water damage.

His killers wanted Thomas S. Mouzon Jr. dead so badly that they were bold enough to confront him on a busy East Baltimore street and shoot him repeatedly in front of at least 10 witnesses. A police spokeswoman said that bystanders heard Mouzon yell, "It wasn't me! It wasn't me!" moments before two men opened fire as the victim and nine other detainees were being escorted by an unarmed staff member from a basketball court to a halfway house on North Caroline Street. When the shooting about 8 p.m. Monday was over, Mouzon, 23, lay on the sidewalk in front of Dr. Bernard Harris Sr. Elementary School, across the street from Dismas House, where he had been close to finishing a three-year sentence for cocaine distribution, officials said.

In 2007, Matthew Kerr wants to run five kilometers in under 18 minutes. Wendy Berry wants to keep off the 66 pounds she lost last year. Lawrence Bond wants to stay sober - he said he's been clean for two years, after 34 years of using drugs. All three started the new year well. Kerr and Berry, in wet weather, jogged in this year's edition of the Resolution Run - a 5K race around Patterson Park that benefits a Washington Hill halfway house for men recovering from drug and alcohol addictions.

When Raymont A. Hopewell walked away from a work-release program in Baltimore in September 2004, he didn't just skip out on prison. He eluded a potentially greater threat - the surrender of his DNA. The 34-year-old was among thousands of inmates on a backlogged list to have their DNA collected as state law required. His escape ensured that he would retain that significant piece of evidence for another year. Over the next 12 months, police have since charged, the convicted drug dealer murdered three elderly people, assaulted four others and raped a woman.