State corrections officials denied responsibility Tuesday for chronic staffing problems and outdated security equipment that have been cited in the July 25 death of an officer at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup.
That response led some Democrats to call on Gov. Robert Ehrlich to fire Public Safety Secretary Mary Ann Saar.
State Sen. James DeGrange, D-Anne Arundel, said the more than three-hour hearing conducted by both House and Senate public safety committees left some major questions unanswered.
“I may be more convinced now that we need to change direction in the administration,” DeGrange said. “I think the governor needs to look at that issue. I am scared to death that someone else is going to die.”
With five weeks left until September?s primary elections, Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell called Tuesday?s hearing “election-year theater.”
“The General Assembly?s actions speak a lot louder than their words,” Fawell said. “They cut $15 million from the governor?s pay raise for correctional officers, they killed a plan backed by the governor to that would have prohibited contraband in state prisons and they?ve cut $20 million from the governor?s prison construction program in the last two years alone.”
Saar blamed a strong economy for the lack of corrections officer recruits, and refused to answer questions from lawmakers about the circumstances surrounding David McGuinn?s death.
“That had to do with other things that will play themselves out in the courts in due time,” Saar said.
Saar said the cell block McGuinn was working when he died was fully staffed, but she could not answer lawmakers? questions about how many officers working that night were pulling a second consecutive shift.
Sen. Ida Ruben, D-Montgomery, said potential officer candidates were “afraid to be officers,” and said Saar had an obligation to make a case with Gov. Robert Ehrlich for more funding for prison positions.
McGuinn was stabbed to death when two inmates escaped from their cells by allegedly jamming the vintage 1929 locks. McGuinn was alone during the routine headcount, and may have been on an inmate hit list.
DeGrange said he had been sent a list of names of 20 corrections officers supposedly on a hit list. He declined to say who sent him the list or to release the list to the media because of concerns for the safety of the named officers. But a committee staff member and DeGrange confirmed that McGuinn?s name was not on the list.
Division of Corrections Commissioner Frank Sizer said hit lists were common in prison systems, but said he had not seen a hit list in this case. He also said “inmates have been popping cell doors,” but said he “was not aware cells were popped prior to this.”
“It seems a little late to say we?re just looking at this now,” Ruben said.
stracy@baltimoreexaminer.com
