Jail

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

I was volunteer and then staff chaplain at the Baltimore City Detention Center. I was terminated 2011, four months short of 16 years. The commissioner saw an inmate using the phone in my office as I was listening. This has always been a major element of my job description. Other support staff that interact with inmates do the same. One said to me he thought providing phone access was part of my job. The phones on the sections need cumbersome complex prior arrangements for payment and cannot call many locations needed.

Akua Zenzele, a community supervision agent in Southeast Baltimore who works with parolees, knows the first few days after being released from incarceration are crucial for former inmates. Many are paroled with few resources and nowhere to go. Some end up homeless, and without a way to meet basic needs; others wind up back in jail after committing new crimes just to get by. Zenzele, whose job is to monitor those on parole and probation, has seen the cycle play out before. When she found out that one of her clients was living in a homeless shelter, she decided to try a new strategy to help people get settled as soon as possible.

Fox News is not backing off on the Baltimore prison story scandal despite a bunch of big national stories that have conservatives salivating over the damage they see the Obama administration suffering. Take a look at this video (below) from Bill O'Reilly that features Jesse Watters bird-dogging Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Gary Maynard, the chief of Maryland prisons. Check out O'Reilly saying that Maynard "sounds like a moron. " I asked O'Malley about it Tuesday morning in Joppa during a set visit he paid to the soundstages where "House of Cards" is filmed.

As I assessed the situation at the Baltimore City jail, and the subsequent indictments that came down because of the corruption of a few, I realized that while the rosy portrait painted by Gov. Martin O'Malley may not have been as bright as he would have liked the public to believe, it certainly was nowhere near as gloomy as your recent editorial portrayed it ("O'Malley can't spin his way out of the jail scandal," April 30). It's easy to point the finger after the hard work has been done; as they say, "hindsight is 20/20.

In a career that's spanned more than four decades in four states, Gary D. Maynard has dealt with inmate sex scandals, prison riots, suicides and shrinking public safety budgets. Last week, the Maryland corrections secretary faced a bank of TV cameras and the latest crisis in his long career. This one would make national news and prompt an outcry from across the state: Gang members allegedly built a wide-ranging criminal enterprise in the Baltimore City Detention Center, dealing drugs and impregnating correctional officers.

I have been reading with great interest the recent articles on the Baltimore City Detention Center and Central Booking ("City jail oversight said to be lacking," Aug. 6). Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of the abhorrent conditions defense lawyers face when attempting to have meaningful interviews with clients. In the BCDC, we are forced to conduct interviews in filthy, cramped booths equipped with equally filthy backless iron stools. More often than not, there is no real privacy or ability to go over audio tapes, etc. These conditions are deplorable, along with the loud yelling of inmates as well as the officers.

Baltimoreans are discovering that the inmates have been running the Baltimore City Detention Center, namely the BGF or Black Guerrilla Family ("Corruption alleged at jail," April 24). Tavon "Bulldog" White, a leader in the BGF gang was quoted as saying "This is my jail. " Who would argue with him, as the incriminating article did not mention the name of the detention center's warden? Now that it's been resolved as to who is running the prison, it makes me question how this situation devolved into its current state.

From the Baltimore Sun's Jill Rosen: Ethan Phillip Weibman who plead guilty last fall to animal abuse in the death of one cat and the beating of another was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in prison. After District Judge Charles A. Chiapparelli's ruling, officers immediately took the 20-year-old, a short-time Baltimore resident originally from a wealthy hamlet in Westchester County, N.Y., into custody, as his mother shrieked in protest. “It's not just a crime, it's a person I'm sentencing,” Chiapparelli said.

Former NBA player Oliver J. Miller was sentenced Friday to a year in the Anne Arundel County jail for pistol-whipping his girlfriend's brother in Arnold. Miller, 41, who was living with his girlfriend in Edgewater, pleaded guilty last fall to first-degree assault and carrying a handgun. "I apologize for the wrong I've done," Miller told Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Paul A. Hackner. He said he is "just a man protecting the people I love. " The allegations stemmed from a family argument at a cookout April 17 at a friend's home.

Saying that "those who made the laws have an obligation to obey them," a District Court judge in Annapolis sentenced state Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. on Tuesday to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to operating a boat while under the influence. Dwyer, 55, a Republican from Pasadena, immediately filed an appeal. The sentence stems from a powerboat collision last summer on the Magothy River involving Dwyer's boat, the Legislator, and another vessel. Several people were injured in the crash, and toxicology tests showed that Dwyer had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for being under the influence.

As I assessed the situation at the Baltimore City jail, and the subsequent indictments that came down because of the corruption of a few, I realized that while the rosy portrait painted by Gov. Martin O'Malley may not have been as bright as he would have liked the public to believe, it certainly was nowhere near as gloomy as your recent editorial portrayed it ("O'Malley can't spin his way out of the jail scandal," April 30). It's easy to point the finger after the hard work has been done; as they say, "hindsight is 20/20.

Months before a federal indictment detailed allegations of corruption at the Baltimore City Detention Center, the smuggling and sexual improprieties at the core of that case had already been outlined in an inmate's lawsuit. Calvin Hemphill, in a handwritten civil complaint filed in federal court in July, alleged that fellow inmate Tavon White was a gang leader who held a startling degree of jailhouse power. Cellphones - illegal in the jail - were readily available to White, he held control over the jail's "working man" program, and he was able to come and go from his cell as he pleased, according to the court papers.

The call came into the Baltimore County emergency dispatch center just after midnight. An unidentified woman asked police respond to a home in Parkville. She didn't say why. When officers arrived in the first minutes of Sunday, they found 26-year-old Paul White Jr., who had been released from the county jail less than three months earlier, leaving his family's home, police said. Inside, White's mother was found unconscious and bleeding from at least one stab wound from a kitchen knife, and his sister was also found stabbed and bleeding, police said.

One of the most poignant expressions is the one that states that you can glean the true measure of a man or woman by how they interact with someone who can do nothing, or give nothing, to that person in return. Enter Dan Rodricks who was spot-on in his assessment of Gov. Martin O'Malley ("Corrections never an O'Malley priority," May 2). Mr. Rodricks wrote that the governor has turned his back on the reforms to the corrections system because it will garner him zero votes were he to seek higher office.

General Assembly leaders say a joint committee of top legislators will hear from corrections officials about alleged corruption at the Baltimore City Detention Center. The briefing, to be held in June, replaces a House Judiciary Committee hearing that had been scheduled for next week. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch announced the joint public briefing of the Legislative Policy Committee by top corrections officials in June. Alexandra Hughes, a spokeswoman for the speaker, said the exact date of the briefing is expected to be announced next week.

E ighteen days after his marijuana-possession arrest, one of our clients, a 25-year-old Baltimore man, remained in jail at taxpayer expense. The defendant, a veteran of the war in Iraq, never failed to appear in court and had only one previous conviction for using marijuana, which resulted in his current probation. But he was still incarcerated at the city's Central Booking and Intake Center, simply because he could not afford his $1,000 bail. Maintaining a pretrial jail population is costly.

Despite objections from youth advocates and some city lawmakers, momentum is building in the State House to construct a new 120-bed jail in Baltimore for youths who are charged as adults. Debate over the proposed jail has swirled in Baltimore and the halls of Annapolis since 2010, with state officials demanding more space for imprisoned youths and advocates saying the resources would be better spent on education and prevention. "I think that it has been studied enough," said Del. Adrienne A. Jones, after a House Capital Budget Subcommittee briefing on the project Wednesday morning.

I could not agree more with The Sun's editorial regarding Gov. Martin O'Malley and corruption in the city jail ("Spinning corruption," May 1). Governor O'Malley is running for higher office and is not taking responsibility for the corrections system corruption that has been going on for decades. Heads should roll and replacements be made, rather than allowing the current "leadership" to fix the system that is broken and needs rebuilding. Allowing the current secretary to continue in office sends the message that a Band-Aid is being placed on cancer.