The recent slayings of two Md. inmates have raised questions about security within the Maryland Division of Correction even as the Ehrlich administration implements programs aimed at reducing violence behind bars.

Philip E. Parker Jr., 20, was killed Feb. 2 aboard a bus full of inmates. His fellow passengers included Kevin G. Johns Jr., who had just been sentenced for killing his 16-year-old cellmate. No one has been charged in Parker's slaying, which is being investigated.

The victims' survivors and their attorneys want to know why Johns, originally sentenced to 35 years for choking and hacking his uncle to death, was placed in such close quarters with inmates convicted of lesser crimes.

Parker was serving 31/2 years for unarmed robbery and a weapons violation. Armad Cloude, 16, was serving 12 years for second-degree murder when Johns strangled him in their cell on Jan. 23, 2004. A wrongful death lawsuit is being prepared, according to reports.

Parker was strangled on a bus carrying him and Johns back to the maximum-security Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, also known as Supermax, in Baltimore. Johns had been at Supermax since Cloude's murder.

On the bus back to Supermax, all inmates were shackled and handcuffed, consistent with the state's policy of transporting all inmates as if they were classified at the highest security level, Miss Doggett said.