South Wing

Days before the end of the last century, hundreds of prisoners filed into the South Wing of Baltimore's new Maryland Penitentiary, heralded as "an imperishable monument to the humanitarianism of the state."At the time, the imposing granite fortress was state-of-the-art, a far cry from the squalor in which inmates had been living. So dramatic was the change that The Sun reported prisoners were "delighted with the conveniences" as they were locked into their dormitory cells for the first time.

With the county's population growing and hospital admissions rising, Carroll County General Hospital is embarking on a $35 million expansion that will create a new emergency department, add 30 beds and improve outpatient services and parking. Plans for the project were submitted in a certificate of need filed with Maryland Healthcare Commission late last month. If approved, building would begin in January. The expansion would be paid for with hospital reserves and bonds secured through the county, said David Horn, vice president of marketing and business development for the hospital.

SO THEY are finally razing the Maryland State Penitentiary's notorious South Wing, probably the most hellish place in the Free State. I say hooray! Tear it down, tear it down, tear it down!At least we know the roof is gone. A crane swooped down from above, opened its mouth and gripped the top of the South Wing in its teeth. It bit and pulled. The roof came away, while I stood in the yard and applauded. Smut and rust flakes burst from the corners of the crane's mouth as it chewed on the South Wing's head.

Phase three of the courthouse shuffle begins tomorrow as offices of the Circuit Court criminal and civil clerks, bookkeeping and juvenile services move into the south wing on the second floor of the Courthouse Annex in Westminster.Space in the south wing had been occupied by the Carroll County Board of Education, which consolidated its offices in July, moving to the Winchester Building on North Court Street across from the Carroll County Detention Center.In Phase two in September, the office of the state's attorney moved from the Winchester Building to the south wing's first floor.

The Maryland Penitentiary's South Wing, the state's most decrepit and notorious cellblock, is now empty.The last prisoner was transferred out last Tuesday, 92 years to the day after the 400-cell South Wing opened for business, prison spokesman Gregory M. Shipley said.The closing came a year after an inmate fell through a crumbling slate floor and down to the next tier in the wing.After the fall, corrections Commissioner Richard Lanham Sr. ordered the South Wing's last 151 prisoners transferred out. It took a year to find space for the wing's inmates in other facilities, Shipley said.

State taxpayers are shelling out $16 million to demolish the South Wing of the Maryland Penitentiary and replace it with a minimum security prison, when another plan would have cost $6 million less and preserved the century-old building in East Baltimore.State public safety chief Bishop L. Robinson is the chief proponent of razing the South Wing, which was closed in December 1991, a year after an inmate fell through a crumbling slate floor and landed on a tier. State prison officials insist the building must go because it does not meet "modern correctional standards."

Phase three of the courthouse shuffle begins tomorrow as offices of the Circuit Court criminal and civil clerks, bookkeeping and juvenile services move into the south wing on the second floor of the Courthouse Annex in Westminster.Space in the south wing had been occupied by the Carroll County Board of Education, which consolidated its offices in July, moving to the Winchester Building on North Court Street across from the Carroll County Detention Center.In Phase two in September, the office of the state's attorney moved from the Winchester Building to the south wing's first floor.

A Maryland Penitentiary guard was in critical condition last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center after an inmate stabbed him at least 11 times with a homemade knife, said state police Sgt. Gregory M. Shipley.Wendell A. Winchester, 30, of Baltimore, was stabbed by a 32-year-old inmate as he and another correctional officer were doing cell checks on the ground floor of the South Wing, Sergeant Shipley said.The inmate, whose name will not be released until he is charged, is serving life plus 10 years for rape, battery and larceny, Sergeant Shipley said.

I AM WRITING to you from the Maryland Penitentiary. A guard working the South Wing of this prison was stabbed yesterday evening. As a result, the prison is on "lock-down" status today.I saw the local news broadcasts concerning this tragedy. I also saw how the Division of Correction spokespeople obstinately continue to paint a gruesome picture of the South Wing and the prisoners housed there.South Wing houses several types of prisoners. Some are prisoners who are found guilty of disciplinary infractions and sentenced to a specific term of segregation, generally 30 to 60 days.

Heavy smoke from a "suspicious" fire forced the temporary evacuation of hundreds of inmates last night at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, authorities said.Four alarms were sounded, bringing about 60 pieces of equipment and 114 firefighters went to the prison complex from Anne Arundel, Howard and Prince George's counties, as well as Fort Meade.Two inmates were treated for smoke inhalation at the prison, while one firefighter was treated at North Arundel General Hospital for minor injuries.

WHEN JULY 8, 1966, rolled around, I had already been imprisoned in the Maryland State Penitentiary for 3 1/2 years. I was serving a 15-year sentence for an armed robbery in which I had stolen all of $86.Raised in absolute madness and violence, I was to the manor born when it came to prison insanity. I cared nothing aboutmyself, even less about others. I hated my keepers with a glee that came from being taught to hate and endure under any and all forms of abusive authority.Admittedly, I was truly a young and lost sick puppy who needed to be dealt with.

Today marks a bicentennial anniversary in Washington for the laying of the Capitol's cornerstone -- a beginning of sorts not only for the building but the nation it has come to symbolize.Change for Capitol, as for the nation, seems without end -- from the simple early days when legislators in its damp, dark halls used privies in the courtyard, though eras of expansion, modernization and restoration.BThe building that visitors see today -- and will see Oct. 23, when the bicentennial will be celebrated with a public ceremony, a picnic and the return of the restored statue of Freedom to the top of the dome -- would hardly be recognized by the lawmakers who moved the capital from Philadelphia to Washington and took occupancy in 1800.

SO THEY are finally razing the Maryland State Penitentiary's notorious South Wing, probably the most hellish place in the Free State. I say hooray! Tear it down, tear it down, tear it down!At least we know the roof is gone. A crane swooped down from above, opened its mouth and gripped the top of the South Wing in its teeth. It bit and pulled. The roof came away, while I stood in the yard and applauded. Smut and rust flakes burst from the corners of the crane's mouth as it chewed on the South Wing's head.

State taxpayers are shelling out $16 million to demolish the South Wing of the Maryland Penitentiary and replace it with a minimum security prison, when another plan would have cost $6 million less and preserved the century-old building in East Baltimore.State public safety chief Bishop L. Robinson is the chief proponent of razing the South Wing, which was closed in December 1991, a year after an inmate fell through a crumbling slate floor and landed on a tier. State prison officials insist the building must go because it does not meet "modern correctional standards."

Wendell Winchester yanked up his T-shirt to reveal a long, gnarled pink scar that screamed across his dark skin, from groin to sternum.That's how our last meeting ended -- with that cringe-inducing image of a good-looking young man, healthy by all outward appearances, lifting his shirt to show where he had been savagely stabbed.Seven months later, Winchester still has the scar, of course, and he still feels pain from each of the 11 spots on his body where the knife entered.We revisit him today because Winchester, a disabled Maryland prison guard, just learned how much in worker's compensation the state, his former employer, thinks each stab wound was worth.

Bishop L. Robinson, Maryland's secretary of public safety and correctional services for the past five years, may quit his state post to become security chief of the Johns Hopkins medical complex in East Baltimore.Mr. Robinson has for about three months been involved in negotiations with Dr. James A. Block, president and chief executive officer of the Johns Hopkins Health Systems and Hopkins Hospital, according to sources.If an agreement can be reached, Mr. Robinson might leave state service when the current General Assembly session concludes April 12.Mr.

The antiquated South Wing of the Maryland Penitentiary, where an inmate recently crashed through a crumbling floor and fell one story, will have to remain in use because of overcrowded prison conditions statewide.After the floor collapsed Dec. 20, the Division of Correction removed about half of the 150 prisoners housed in the wing, said division spokesman Gregory M. Shipley.Pen inmates were shifted mainly to the medium-security House of Correction in Jessup, Shipley said. There are few prisons in the state prepared to handle the violent prisoners housed in the maximum-security Pen.The remaining 75 inmates were moved to the ground floor.

A headline in the final edition of The Evening Sun yesterday incorrectly said three more guards had been stabbed at the Maryland Penitentiary.In fact, the guards received only minor injuries in a scuffle as they forcibly removed an inmate from his cell.The Evening Sun regrets the error.Three more correctional officers received minor injuries today as guards swept through the Maryland Penitentiary, conducting a shakedown in the wake of last night's stabbing of a guard in the prison's South Wing.

Heavy smoke from a "suspicious" fire forced the temporary evacuation of hundreds of inmates last night at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, authorities said.Four alarms were sounded, bringing about 60 pieces of equipment and 114 firefighters went to the prison complex from Anne Arundel, Howard and Prince George's counties, as well as Fort Meade.Two inmates were treated for smoke inhalation at the prison, while one firefighter was treated at North Arundel General Hospital for minor injuries.

Heavy smoke from a "suspicious" fire forced the temporary evacuation of hundreds of inmates last night at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, authorities said.Four alarms were sounded, bringing firefighters and equipment from Anne Arundel, Howard and Prince George's counties, as well as Fort Meade. No serious injury was reported, and damage appeared to be limited to the cells where officials suspect that the fire began."It went to four alarms because of the seriousness associated with the correctional institute," said Leonard A. Sipes Jr., a state Department of Corrections spokesman.