Halfway House

The Howard County Health Department is seeking a state grant for a halfway house that would help women of child-bearing age who are substance abusers and their children who suffer from neglect or abuse.If funded, the program would be the first of its type in the state and could be operating by June, officials said."We hope to include a focus on families where children are abused or neglected," said Dr. Joyce Boyd, county health officer. The intent is a program where "the whole family can get everything they need to be a whole, healthy family."

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.

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.

Jamal Lewis will report to a halfway house in Atlanta - and not Baltimore - after his release from federal prison next Thursday, the running back's attorney said yesterday. Ravens officials recently said there had been indications that the 2003 NFL Offensive Player of the Year could serve his two months at a halfway house in Baltimore and expressed disappointment he would not rejoin the team sooner. By being relegated to Atlanta until Aug. 2, Lewis will finish rehabilitating his surgically repaired ankle away from the Ravens' facility, miss two full-team minicamps and report to training camp three days late.

Three men were fatally shot and a fourth was badly wounded last night in a halfway house for alcoholics and drug addicts in the Remington neighborhood, city police said. At least one gunman entered a sitting room in the group home in the 500 block of W. 27th St. and opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun. One of the victims might have been killed over a debt, and the others shot because they were witnesses, police said. "The motive is still up in the air," said Maj. Richard C. Fahl- teich, newly named head of the homicide squad.

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.

YOU CAN understand why Brooklyn Park residents are concerned about a drug treatment halfway house's plans to nearly double its size. That said, Damascus House has earned the right to be heard, too. The halfway house has operated innocuously from a two-story building on Ritchie Highway for 27 years. It has been a model citizen serving a difficult mission. The center houses adult males who are recovering from substance abuse. Local police say they have no criminal complaints on record from the center.

Howard County officials will mark the opening next week of Howard House, the first halfway house for recovering addicts in the county, which health and drug treatment officials have been seeking for more than a decade. The renovated facility - on the grounds of Sheppard Pratt at Ellicott City - will serve as a home base for a maximum of 15 men who have completed a higher level of substance abuse treatment and want to rebuild their lives. The halfway house will provide recovering addicts with a program that was identified as a needed service more than a decade ago. "It's adding to a continuum of care in a county that really has no residential treatment at all," said Dr. Penny E. Borenstein, Howard County's health officer.