Larry Hogan is expected to make an announcement outside the embattled Baltimore City Detention Center Thursday afternoon. Pittman said he doesn’t know when the jail will close or to which facilities the jobs and inmates will be moved. He declined to say exactly where or when the inmates would be moved for security reasons.
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The prison is so old, it was built before the Civil War of 1861-65 and its roof was collapsing, Hogan said. It’s meant as a final warning to inmates leaving the pre-trial facility. Investigators found that a drug-dealing gang leader had impregnated four guards while being held there.
The governor has directed Secretary Moyer to close the detention center immediately, with approximately 750 male detainees being transferred to other facilities in the region.
The jail, a complex of a dozen buildings, dates from the 1850s, and repairs over the past five years have cost more than $10 million, Hogan’s office said in a statement.
Out of 44 defendants, 40 have been convicted in the case, including 24 corrections officers.
While standing by the crumbling building where inmates could be heard shouting, Hogan sharply criticized his predecessor, former Gov. Martin O’Malley, for failing to take stronger action to prevent corruption at the facility and not closing it sooner.
Far worse, a notorious criminal organization called the Black Guerrilla Family led by Tavon White effectively ran the prison for many years from within it, Hogan noted.
Last month, they asked a federal judge to reopen a lawsuit against Maryland – which took over the jail in 1991 – over inhumane and unsafe conditions. According to the lawsuit, the jail’s medical and mental health care possibly played a role in the death of seven inmates over the last couple of years.
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The agencies also said the state failed to cure systemic problems, despite entering into a 2007 agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition to the corruption uncovered at the jail, Mr. Hogan said poor conditions at the old facility contributed to safety concerns there. In a speech, Moyer began by stating that the jail opened more than 150 years ago and is no longer safe for inmates or staff. “We’ve consistently seen problems that when detainees are transferred from one facility to another, the ball often gets dropped with regard to their health care, sometimes with serious consequences”.
