Lockdown

Another year, another corrections officer stabbed at the Maryland House of Correction. This time, it's 28-year-old Edouardo F. Edouazin, who suffered multiple stab wounds after a 38-year-old inmate allegedly attacked him with a homemade knife. Edouazin's wife, in an article that ran in The Sun on Sunday, said that four inmates attacked her husband. The number of attackers is, the folks at the Division of Correction tell us, "under investigation." In The Sun article, a prisons spokeswoman said that this newspaper's reporters interviewing Edouazin about the incident would impede the investigation.

"Lockdown! Lockdown!" shouts a teacher, and suddenly the students on the third floor of Southern High School scatter in every direction.Most slip into classrooms before doors are shut and bolted, as lockdown requires.But the brave, the defiant -- and the criminal -- scurry off to Stairwells 5 and 6 -- two areas of the South Baltimore school that hall monitors such as Mike McRae, a former prison guard, rarely patrol.There, cigarette butts, broken glass and chicken bones -- muck enough to cause more than one student to fall -- cover stairs in need of new paint.

Punishing all won't solve Jessup problemsAs a citizen and volunteer at the Maryland House of Correction Annex in Jessup, I am dismayed by the continuing lockdown at that facility, now in its third month. I know there has been violence at this maximum-security facility, not only between inmates but between inmates and correctional officers.Just when the lockdown was about to be lifted recently, a stabbing of a correctional officer and of another who came to his assistance, caused the lockdown to be continued in a more severe form.

Officials at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup are investigating a fight there over the weekend that sent four correctional officers to a local hospital and 10 inmates to the prison's infirmary.The injuries resulted from a fight late Friday evening between inmates, who were using a piece of metal fashioned into a weapon. When officers tried to break up the fight at the maximum-security prison, four were injured. No one was seriously hurt, public safety officials said.Patuxent officials would not provide further details, saying the incident was being investigated by authorities at the prison.

A headline in yesterday's editions stated incorrectly that the lockdown begun in early May at the Maryland House of Corrections Annex will end Monday. In fact, officials on Monday will begin a gradual easing of the lockdown.The Sun regrets the error.Ending the longest confinement of inmates since a 1991 riot at the state's Hagerstown prison, Maryland corrections officials plan to begin lifting the almost monthlong lockdown at the Maryland House of Correction Annex next week.Starting at 8 a.m. Monday, 10 inmates at a time will be allowed one-hour visits to the Jessup prison's four day rooms -- 1,000-square-foot rooms where they can watch television, play board games and make telephone calls.

The Thursday night stabbing of a corrections officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center and a tip that a gun had been smuggled into the Madison Street jail triggered a lockdown yesterday that is expected to last through the weekend.Police found more than 100 homemade weapons yesterday after searching the cells of half the 2,800 inmates, and state prison officials said that number could triple when the search is finished.The guard was not injured seriously.LaMont W. Flanagan, commissioner of the state Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, said the lockdown and search show that "we are dealing with violent offenders who only transfer the violence from the streets to inside these walls."

Corrections officials said yesterday that the state penitentiary in Baltimore has been locked down since Monday partly because inmates were dissatisfied with the coordinator of Muslim religious services and became unruly.About 150 prisoners on Sunday morning and 50 on Monday refused to leave their cells for breakfast, said Sgt. Gregory M. Shipley, a corrections spokesman.During a recreation period Monday afternoon, two telephones were ripped from a wall. The warden then decided to lock down the prison and initiate a shakedown -- an intensive search -- of the facility.

The sound of metal keys banging against the iron bars of the cell door pierced through my sleep, tearing my dream to shreds."Wise, get up and get dressed!" The guard's sharp command brought reality crashing down on me. "The warden wants to see you right away!""Damn!" I muttered. As I mechanically swung my bare feet onto the cold concrete floor, the previous night's events came slowly back. About 9:30 p.m. a large group of us was crammed into the tiny A-Block shower room laughing and joking about the basketball game we had played earlier in No. 4 yard.

Correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center quickly put down what was described as a small disturbance yesterday evening after a power failure, state correctional officials said.The failure, which happened about 5 p.m., cut off power to the annex building of the Detention Center, a dormitory building that houses about 400 inmates. After several inmates broke windows and set fire to trash cans, officers decided to move the inmates into the main jail, Commissioner LaMont Flanagan said.

More than 470 inmates at the Harford County Detention Center in Bel Air were placed on lockdown Friday morning after a fire broke out in the facility's kitchen. As a precaution, sheriff's deputies were summoned to augment the corrections officers, said Monica Worrell, a spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. "They were making sure that, during the commotion, no one could escape without being noticed," she said. "It's standard procedure." No injuries were reported. Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph G. Zurolo Jr. said the fire was caused by an electrical component in "some type of oven."

The calm of what residents called a quiet Howard County neighborhood was briefly interrupted Friday afternoon when an 18-year-old Columbia man was shot in the leg at an apartment he was visiting. Police put two local schools and a day care center on lockdown as they searched for his assailant, who they arrested later that day. Walter Richardson of the 5500 block of Sheffield Court was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, police said.

New TNA women's champion Angelina Love confirmed on her MySpace account that she suffered a concussion during the cage match at the Lockdown pay-per-view Sunday. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ringposts)

More than 470 inmates at the Harford County Detention Center in Bel Air were placed on lockdown Friday morning after a fire broke out in the facility's kitchen. As a precaution, sheriff's deputies were summoned to augment the corrections officers, said Monica Worrell, a spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. "They were making sure that, during the commotion, no one could escape without being noticed," she said. "It's standard procedure." No injuries were reported. Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph G. Zurolo Jr. said the fire was caused by an electrical component in "some type of oven."

Reality star Danny Bonaduce will wrestle inside the six sides of steel at TNA's Lockdown pay-per-view on April 19. I actually find Bonaduce's human train wreck shtick entertaining. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ringposts)

As diplomats and world leaders gather at the U.S. Naval Academy today in hopes of laying the groundwork for a new Middle East peace agreement, they will be surrounded by reminders of the terrible cost of war. Memorial Hall, where President Bush will kick off the conference this morning and the bulk of the official events will be held, is filled with tablets that carry the names of 2,623 fallen graduates, killed in conflicts dating to the Civil War. ...

Maryland State Police are looking for a person who made a phone call threatening to "shoot up" a Carroll County high school yesterday, prompting a countywide school lockdown for nearly three hours. State troopers, with help from the county sheriff's office, were dispatched throughout the county in response to the threat, searching and securing campuses, state police said. Police were to remain at all schools until 4 p.m., said Sgt. Arthur Betts of the state police. An increased police presence is also expected at schools in South Carroll today.

The Metropolitan Transition Center remained in lockdown yesterday for the second day after a brawl that left 18 inmates injured. Three of the injured prisoners were still in serious condition at area hospitals, according to George Gregory, a spokesman for the Maryland Division of Correction. Officials declined to release the injured prisoners' names or any additional details about the possible gang fight, saying their investigation into the violent episode is continuing. "The key to this type of investigation is cooperation among the inmates," said Mark Vernarelli, director of public information for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Another year, another corrections officer stabbed at the Maryland House of Correction. This time, it's 28-year-old Edouardo F. Edouazin, who suffered multiple stab wounds after a 38-year-old inmate allegedly attacked him with a homemade knife. Edouazin's wife, in an article that ran in The Sun on Sunday, said that four inmates attacked her husband. The number of attackers is, the folks at the Division of Correction tell us, "under investigation." In The Sun article, a prisons spokeswoman said that this newspaper's reporters interviewing Edouazin about the incident would impede the investigation.

Word spread at young Alex Rummel's bus stop yesterday morning that the Super Fresh around the corner had just been robbed. As police cruisers swarmed the neighborhood, Alex, 13, ran home to tell his mother. Then things got interesting. After hearing a ruckus in the backyard of their Cottington Road home, Alex and his mother watched through their kitchen window as police officers lifted a German shepherd over their neighbor's fence. The police dog bolted straight to a shed, and the officers immediately followed.

A 20-year-old student at Southwestern Senior High was stabbed in the upper chest yesterday during an altercation in the rear of the building in the 200 block of Font Hill Ave., city police reported. The victim, Paul Jones, was taken by ambulance to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was treated and released, said a shock-trauma spokesman. City police have issued a warrant for an 18-year-old man in the stabbing. Police said another suspect was also being sought, but a warrant was not immediately issued for him. The names of both suspects were withheld by police.