Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jul 2006
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Greg Garland, Sun reporter

INMATES TARGET STRICTEST OFFICERS

Jessup Prison's Lax Culture Problematic, Workers Say

Amid the steady flow of drugs, tobacco, cell phones and other 
contraband at the Maryland House of Corrections, officers who 
strictly enforce the rules end up putting targets on their backs, say 
former inmates and those who have worked in the Jessup prison.

Officer David McGuinn, who was not one to look the other way, was 
stabbed to death last week by inmates who, according to colleagues, 
considered his diligence an annoying burden. Since March, three 
inmates were stabbed to death and two officers were wounded with 
homemade knives.

The long-ingrained culture of laxness by some prison staff that led 
to the violence has been building for years and won't be solved 
easily or quickly, according to prison system administrators, 
correctional officers and former inmates.

Threats against McGuinn's life were carried out after two inmates 
allegedly jammed the locks to their cell doors and emerged to stab 
him as he walked a notoriously dangerous tier in the prison's west wing.

"McGuinn was straight up and down," said Erika Ballard, a former 
correctional dietary officer who went through a training academy 
program with McGuinn.

While he "wasn't a mean person or the kind who would be involved in 
beating an inmate up," McGuinn didn't cut inmates any breaks when it 
came to enforcing rules, according to Ballard.

"They [inmates] said last summer they were going to kill him before 
the summer was over," Ballard said. "It was like a joke."

Corrections officials have acknowledged that they assigned McGuinn to 
outside duties for a time, where he would be away from inmates. They 
have not explained why his supervisor recently reassigned him to work 
back inside the housing units.

Timothy Smith, a correctional officer at the Jessup prison for three 
years, said doing the job properly - as McGuinn and another officer 
who was stabbed and wounded in a March attack tried to do - marked 
you as an oddball and could put your life in danger.

"If you are a by-the-book officer, you are basically ridiculed," said 
Smith, who quit the job in March 2005 for other employment and to go 
back to school. He described a lax attitude among some officers who 
would do favors for inmates.

Indeed, prison administrators believe that staff members have been 
the source of cell phones brought in to prisoners - a security 
concern because they can be used by inmates to coordinate criminal 
activity inside and outside prisons. Legislative proposals to make it 
a felony to possess a cell phone inside the secured area of a prison 
have died in committee.

"We acknowledge that some staff may be corrupt, but we have every 
belief and confidence that the majority of our staff are hard-working 
and dedicated officers who come to work who want to operate a safe 
prison," said Maj. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the prison system.

"We do not tolerate, condone or accept corruption at any level of our 
organization, and when we find that it is occurring and the facts are 
available to make a solid case, we will deal with it no matter where 
it falls," Doggett said.

In her first public comments since McGuinn's stabbing death, 
Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Mary 
Ann Saar said Friday that the recent eruption of violence at the 
Jessup prison appears to have been sparked in part by determined 
efforts by corrections administrators to change the long-standing 
culture at the House of Correction.

She also said Maryland's prison system, as is the case for others 
around the country, is dealing with more violent gang members as part 
of the prison population.

"I think the more that you ratchet down on inmates and make sure they 
are following your rules and regulations, initially there is going to 
be a reaction," Saar said.

But Saar said it is important that prison staff send a firm message 
that they - not inmates - control the institutions.

"We are going to run an efficient, safe and secure system, and I 
don't care if the inmates don't like that," Saar said.

To stem the flow of contraband, administrators recently installed 
new, more sensitive screening devices that staff and visitors must 
pass through to enter the prison. And, Saar said, they are making a 
concerted effort to find and root out corrupt staff.

"I know for a fact that we have terminated a number of corrupt 
officers out there," Saar said, referring to firings at the House of 
Correction.

Ron Bailey, executive director of American Federation of State, 
County and Municipal Employees Council 92, acknowledged cases of 
fraternization and contraband. But, he said, "to say it is ingrained 
in the culture - I'm not going to go that far."

Bailey said he counsels officers not to do small favors, such as 
bringing in cigarettes for inmates, because it leads to escalating 
demands. But, he said, "I keep getting word that a lot of officers do 
a lot of things for inmates because they fear for their safety," 
adding that some officers hope an inmate will step in to protect them 
if they ever need it.

"The union's position is certainly [that] that's not something we 
sanction," Bailey said.

Dealing with staff is a challenge in itself because many are hired 
from the same poverty-stricken neighborhoods in and around Baltimore 
where the inmates grew up.

"Most know the inmates because they grew up together," said Melton 
Williams, 50, who spent 23 years behind bars, including a stint at 
the House of Correction, for a murder and kidnapping in Prince 
George's County. He has been out of prison since 1997 and has a job 
supervising and training cleaning crews.

"They dated the same girls and went to the same schools," he said. 
"They are the same ones now turning the locks and the ones who are 
supposed to maintain control. ... It's very difficult."

Princess Logan, who worked at the House of Correction in the 1990s, 
said that, in any event, officers need to stay on good terms with 
inmates for their own safety.

"If you're not friendly to the inmates, they've got every opportunity 
to get to you and do whatever they want," Logan said. "There are so 
many dark places and nooks and crannies in that place."

Ballard, who said she was fired for failing to show up for work at 
the prison and is now employed by a restaurant in Delaware, confirmed 
that contraband trade is a lucrative business inside the Jessup 
prison, with some officers cashing in.

"A cell phone was $300 - $100 more if you would bring in a charger," 
Ballard said. "Tobacco is a very big business in there. An $8 can of 
tobacco sells for $150" to an inmate inside the prison.

Ballard said she was shocked by the lax security and open 
fraternization that she routinely saw between some staff and inmates 
during her time at the House of Correction. Supervisors would even 
call inmates on their cell phones and say, "Y'all are getting shook 
down tomorrow" to alert them when cell searches were planned, she said.

"Somebody really needs to investigate that place," Ballard said. 
"That place is corrupt from the top to the bottom."

Williams also said most contraband comes in through correctional 
officers. He said that practice has a long and deep history and isn't 
something that can be solved in a day.

Some longtime prison system observers say that the current effort to 
clean up the prison - also known as "the Cut" - is similar to one 
launched in 1999.

William W. Sondervan, the state's prisons chief from 1999 to 2003, 
said he decided soon after taking the position to target the Cut as 
one of three "unacceptably poor performing" prisons that needed to be 
cleaned up.

He said he found inmates were running drug operations in Baltimore 
from inside the prison and controlled much of what went on inside the prison.

"There was a decision made that under my term we were going to run 
the prisons; we weren't going to let the inmates run the prisons," 
Sondervan said.

Hundreds of officers launched a surprise sweep of the prison in 1999 
and broke up the inmate leadership, Sondervan said. The most 
influential prisoner, convicted murderer Dennis D. Wise, was packed 
off and sent to Arizona in exchange for one of Arizona's more 
difficult prisoners.

"After we did that, staff and inmates knew we were back in control," 
Sondervan said, adding that the corrections officials were able to 
rid the prison of staff and inmates who were causing the problems.

George Brosan, who held the No. 2 position in the Department of 
Public Safety and Correctional Services under Saar's predecessor, 
Stuart O. Simms, said the current violence suggests the prison has 
been allowed to relapse.

He said that politicians are letting down the honest correctional 
staff by failing to provide them with the resources to perform their 
jobs safely.

"They are not served well by the union or the politicians, and they 
are treated as second-class citizens," he said. "There are no 
profiles in courage among the politicians, but there are a plethora 
of profiles in courage every day in prison."

Saar said Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has done more for corrections 
than his predecessor, Parris N. Glendening. Pay raises were granted 
to correctional officers this year, she said, and additional money 
has been budgeted for safety equipment and other needs.

"His predecessor did nothing for corrections," Saar said of Ehrlich. 
"This governor has done many things for corrections."

Corrections officers employed by the prison system are barred by 
policy from talking to reporters, but dozens voiced outrage over 
McGuinn's death in e-mails and in phone calls to The Sun, in which 
they requested anonymity.

Others who have left the system and are able to speak for the record 
said the correctional system is in crisis.

"In 16 years in corrections, I can never recall this level of 
violence against staff or inmates," said Michael D. Hoosier of Clear 
Spring, who retired from the prison system as a captain in March 2004.

He blamed the problems on the policies of Ehrlich's public safety 
team - Saar, Deputy Secretary Mary Livers and Division of Correction 
Commissioner Frank C. Sizer Jr. - who he said have run off many 
veteran correctional workers.

It isn't clear what impact the latest effort to clean up the House of 
Correction will ultimately have.

Williams, the ex-inmate, said administrators are fooling themselves 
if they think they actually run the prisons. "The reality is it is 
the inmates' prison; this is their home," he said.

Williams said that "trying to impose rules that interfere with the 
natural dynamic of prison culture" is a mistake and that authorities 
need to work with inmate leaders to keep prisons safe and secure.

"Ninety percent of prisoners want to feel secure in the prison," 
Williams said. "They want shakedowns so there aren't knives. But at 
the same time they also want to feel like other human beings in 
society. There has to be some sense of empowerment."

He said young men in their 20s sentenced to multiple life sentences 
with no hope of ever getting out stop caring about themselves or anyone else.

"There's really nothing in that place to give you any inspiration to 
make you want to better your life. ... You have to tell yourself, 'I 
want to be a better human being even if I die in here.' There is so 
much apathy, so much hopelessness," Williams said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman