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| Inmate deaths spark new bill |
| By Baltimore Sun |
| Published: 02/07/2005 |
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Maryland prison officials say the internal investigators looking into the death of an inmate on a prison bus last week are conducting an independent inquiry, but critics say that using an outside agency would eliminate any hint of bias. Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill last week that would require the Maryland State Police to investigate deaths that occur within or outside state-operated juvenile and adult correctional facilities unless the deaths are found to result from natural causes. "It seems to me that if somebody is in the custody of the [Division of Correction], the state police should investigate so there can be no question of bias, or at least we can reduce the questions that can be raised about the completeness and fairness of the investigation," Frosh said. Frosh said his bill was sparked by the death last year of inmate Ifeanyi A. Iko at Western Correctional Institution in Allegany County after a confrontation with correctional officers. The investigators leading the inquiry into the death last week of Philip E. Parker Jr., 20, on a bus headed from Hagerstown to the Supermax prison in Baltimore, are part of the Internal Investigation Unit of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The state police are providing assistance in the investigation. The internal unit comprises more than two dozen investigators who have broad authority to investigate crimes committed by employees or inmates within the state prison system and other public safety facilities, such as the Patuxent Institution, a mental health facility for convicted offenders. The investigators have full arrest and investigative powers, and are not accountable to the commissioner of the Division of Correction, who oversees the operations of the state prisons, prison officials said. Instead, the investigators report to the secretary of public safety, a gubernatorial appointee, and they have the discretion to call upon the state police for investigative assistance. States typically have internal investigation entities that operate on prison grounds. They vary in the way they handle serious offenses, such as homicides, and to whom they are accountable, said Joe Weedon, spokesman for the American Correctional Association, based in Lanham. "If it rises to a criminal act, then outside investigators are usually brought in," Weedon said. "Internal affairs people usually handle internal disciplinary issues. ... Some are completely separate from the Department of Corrections; others fall under the direction of the secretary of the department." |
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