Four stabbings in four consecutive days this month and another, fatal stabbing in January have led correctional officials to order an extended lockdown at the Maryland House of Corrections Annex in Jessup as they conduct an extensive cell-by-cell search for weapons.

Warden James V. Peguese said the lockdown that began Feb. 7, after the most recent assault, restricts the prison's 1,210 inmates to their cells, denies them recreation and work privileges and bars visitors.

The order will not be lifted until authorities believe it is safe to resume normal operations, he said: "It's difficult for me to say when that will be."

Together with the strangling of an inmate on a prison bus Feb. 2 and the surfacing of internal department reports that detail assaults on correctional officers, the latest incidents are raising questions about the safety and security of Mary land's prisons.

The prison lockdown and the stabbings that prompted it came to light after inmates, their relatives and correctional officers wrote letters and e-mails to The Sun to report problems that they said they believed authorities were trying to hide.

Union officials say inadequate staffing has made the state's prisons more dangerous for staff and inmates. Prison administrators disagree, saying their reports show that the number of inmate assaults is declining.
Internal investigators are trying to determine whether the four stabbings this month are linked. He said that the four inmates were treated for their injuries and returned to the prison.

Union officials say staffing cuts have left correctional officers and inmates more vulnerable to assaults.

Correction division reports show there were 1,540 inmate-on-inmate assaults throughout Maryland's prison system in 2001; 1,511 in 2002; 1,438 in 2003 and 1,295 last year.

But union officials say they suspect that not all incidents are being reported to administrative staff. Bailey said officers have told him they are being told not to report some incidents as violent assaults.