More high-security beds for violent and gang-related offenders are needed, officials say.
By SCOTT DAUGHERTY
The Capital
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — Two months after county leaders scrapped a planned jail expansion in favor of building more schools, detention center officials and county administrators appeared before the County Council saying the jails are so full they are getting dangerous and need $70.7 million over the next six years to expand.
Alan Friedman, the county’s director of government relations, said yesterday that if the council does not give its written support to the proposed bonds by September the county will lose its place in line for state money. He said that would force the $29.3 million first phase of the project, which already won’t result in any new jail beds until 2012, to be delayed for at least another year.
(AP Photo/Kevin Glackmeyer) |
But county councilmen yesterday were cool to the full three-phase project. They agreed the county jails need more beds, but several balked at the price tag - about $90,000 per bed. Most councilmen adopted a wait-and-see approach, saying they will look at the county’s finances in September and then determine if they can pledge the money.
County administrators proposed the county put aside $2 million for project planning in fiscal 2010. That will be followed by $29.4 million in fiscal 2011 and $31.4 million in fiscal 2012.
Council Chairman Cathy Vitale, R-Severna Park, said she wants county administrators to tell her in September some of the things they aren’t going to be able to fund in May before she will commit to the project.
“I don’t have a clue what the county’s priorities will be,” she said.
Josh Cohen, D-Annapolis, said the county has not held any public hearings on the proposed expansion of the Ordnance Road Correction Center in Glen Burnie, which houses inmates serving sentences usually of less than 18 months.
He added if the council pledges money in September - eight months before they see the county executive’s proposed budget - they could be asked to do the same thing next year.
“Will it be, ‘If you didn’t speak up six months ago you are out of luck?’ ” Mr. Cohen said, fearing the precedent.
The problems
In an extended PowerPoint presentation, Robin Harting, superintendent of county detention facilities, laid out the problems facing the county jails.
The official capacity of the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Parole and the Ordnance Road Correctional Center in Glen Burnie is 1,175 inmates. Ms. Harting said the average daily population of the two jails was 1,153 in 2007, up from 876 in 1999.
Ms. Harting said consultants have projected the county will need 1,634 beds by 2012 and 1,877 beds by 2017.
All jail beds are not the same. Ms. Harting said while she needs more beds, she especially needs more medium- and maximum-security beds. She said the jail’s population is getting more violent and gang-oriented.
Right now there are no physical cells at the Ordnance Road facility, where county inmates go after they are convicted of a crime. She said maximum-security inmates at Ordnance Road live in open dormitories. Also, one correctional officer must indirectly supervise 80 to 112 inmates, she said.
Ms. Harting said she needs more cells to control gang activity inside the jail and rein in violence. Without them, she said, she cannot guarantee the safety of some inmates.
Ms. Harting said 141 inmates were assaulted in the fiscal year ending June 30 - 15 percent more than the previous fiscal year. Twenty-one of those assaults resulted in hospitalization and 33 resulted in a trip to the jail’s medical unit.
“We’re not in Kansas anymore,” she said.
The proposal
County Executive John R. Leopold announced in May he would delay the maximum-security jail expansion at Ordnance Road and funnel $2 million in design money toward repairing Folger McKinsey and Belle Grove Elementary Schools. County schools have a $1.5 billion backlog in capital projects, according to recent study.
Mr. Friedman said the plan to expand the jail has changed since May. But he said the project doesn’t have to lose its place in line for the state money if the county pledges by September to approve the bonds in May.
“We can almost get ourself back on track,” he said.
The county would pay for 55 percent of the construction and the state 45 percent. All of the construction would occur at the Ordnance Road facility, but some of that work would free up space at Jennifer Road.
Phase I would include 240 new minimum-security beds - for inmates serving work-release and weekend sentences - and 60 additional beds for a new mental-health unit. It also would expand the Ordnance Road’s Receiving section and the facility’s warehouse.
Phase I, which would cost $29.3 million, would free up 240 medium security beds at Ordnance Road and 40 beds at Jennifer Road. Jail officials hope to begin the design process in 2010 and the construction process in 2011. Inmates would move in October 2012.
Phase II, which is slated to cost $33.5 million, would include 320 maximum-security beds in 160 cells. Jail officials said they hope to begin that design process in 2011, start construction in 2012, and move in by October 2013.
Phase III, which is estimated to cost $7.3 million, would help the jail handle a booming female inmate population, Ms. Harting said. It would include 160 maximum- and medium-security beds in 80 cells. Jail officials said the plan is to begin that design process in 2013, construction in 2015, and then move in 2017.
If all three phases are built as planned, the county would have an official capacity of 1,915 inmates in 2017 - 28 more than the county’s projected inmate population for that year.
The alternatives
County jails are more than just beds. Ms. Harting showed councilmen pictures of day rooms and gyms where inmates may spend their day, participating in tutoring programs and receiving counseling.
Ms. Vitale, an attorney by trade, questioned why the jail doesn’t convert some of those spaces to dormitories before spending millions on an expansion.
“Are all those things you are putting in place doing any good,” she said, noting that the average inmate has more than seven prior convictions and has gone to jail more than four times. “Have you taken the time to look outside the box?”
Ms. Harting said they can fill the community spaces with beds, but she argued that would make it harder for inmates to receive good-time credits which would in turn lead to longer stays.
“What you are talking about is warehousing,” Ms. Harting said.
She also said if the county packs more inmates into the same jails, they can expect more fights and problems.
“Crowded facilities are dangerous facilities,” she said.
Ms. Harting might not have a choice for the next couple years though. If the county doesn’t send the state a letter in September pledging $16.1 million in bonds, Ms. Harting won’t have any more space until at least 2013.
“We’ll keep stuffing them in,” she said. "(But) they (the jails) will be increasingly dangerous and hard to manage.”
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