Parole

IT'S TOO BAD County Executive Janet S. Owens still wants to move forward with the current development proposal for Parole Plaza. The decrepit shopping center just west of Annapolis has been planned for more than 30 years as a mixed-use center in Parole. It was supposed to add some urban flair to the community. But Ms. Owens continues to side with the property's owner, Carl Freedman, who thinks Wal-Mart instead of Georgetown when he thinks town center. Why would the county executive share his lack of vision?

NEIGHBORING merchants are profoundly interested in how the Parole Plaza shopping center will take shape. Among the businesses are Giolitti Delicatessen & Catering, Fred's Restaurant, Parole Shoe and Luggage Repair and Riley's Cleaners. Business owners have watched from the sidelines as the Parole Plaza's owner dueled with local planners and one very strident county councilwoman. Carl Freedman, a New Jersey resident whose family has owned Parole Plaza for 40 years, wants to lure a giant retailer - Wal-Mart, to be specific.

The controversial plan to turn Parole from a traffic-choked commercial suburb designed for driving into a livable town center designed for walking is slowly taking shape under the guidance of a citizens committee and county planners.The 15-member committee, made up of area residents and business people, was to meet last night to review the county design team's latest draft. The preliminary proposal calls for a tree-lined downtown in place of Parole Plaza that mixes stores, offices and residences; new shops and roads to serve existing commercial areas; and a new, open look for Annapolis Mall.

ALTURAS, Calif. -- Whether anyone in this tiny ranching town likes it or not, Melvin Carter appears to be here to stay.But conditions the state has attached to the parole of the "College Terrace rapist" may make the man who has confessed to raping more than 100 women something of a prisoner all over again.Carter was whisked -- hidden in the trunk of a car sometime Thursday -- into the Devil's Garden conservation camp, deep in a juniper tree forest, five miles outside of town. On Friday, some of the stringent parole conditions he agreed to became widely known: Carter cannot leave the camp grounds for the next three years without the permission of his parole officer, according to state officials, and he must undergo regular psychiatric counseling.

House Minority Leader Ellen R. Sauerbrey said yesterday that parole should be eliminated for all violent offenders in Maryland, a change she said would require the state's prison system to add another 4,000 beds by the end of the decade.Mrs. Sauerbrey, a conservative, four-term delegate from Baltimore County and a Republican candidate for governor, said that eliminating parole for those convicted of violent crimes is a move the state should make to crack down on the "small group of violent predators" who move in and out of the criminal justice system.

The county planning board was presented last night with a plan to transform Parole from an ugly and confusing sprawl of parking lots and shopping centers into an urban center with shopping, offices and condominiums.The scheme was presented by the Parole Growth Management Advisory Committee which has been working for some time on a plan to improve the 1,500-acre retail area to the west of Annapolis.The committee wants pedestrian walkways, improved transportation, distinctive street-level features and preservation of environmentally sensitive areas.

Three Sikhs who have remained in jail for nearly two years since being denied political asylum are requesting parole while they wait for a resolution of their cases.The matter moved into federal court last month after the men protested their lengthy detention by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis gave the INS until late September to investigate and respond.Meanwhile, public defenders assigned to represent the men say members of the local Sikh community have agreed to house and care for their clients if parole is granted.

It sounds simple when the opponents of parole offer their emotionally charged reasons:* A 47-year-old father of two was shot to death in November 1992 when a parolee held up a Catonsville service station.* A 76-year-old woman was beaten, robbed and sexually assaulted twice at her Glen Burnie home in November 1991 by a parolee who repeatedly broke into her home.* A 57-year-old real estate agent was raped, bludgeoned to death and stuffed in a closet Dec. 21 at a home she was showing in West Baltimore.

In a passionate and rambling half-hour plea for a shorter sentence, convicted murderer Abras Q. Morrison yesterday compared serving life at the Maryland Penitentiary without chance for parole to Dorothy wandering lost in the Land of Oz with only her dog Toto at her side."

Terrence Tolbert, convicted last month of first-degree murder and related counts in the high-profile fatal carjacking-shooting of an Annapolis businessman in 2002, faces a possible sentence of life without parole when he appears before an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge tomorrow. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the no-parole prison term, but Tolbert's lawyer has said he is hoping for a shorter sentence from Judge Ronald A. Silkworth. Tolbert, 22, contended that his alleged accomplice acted alone in killing Straughan Lee Griffin, 51, in September 2002, as Griffin unloaded his sport utility vehicle in front of his home in the Historic District of Annapolis.