Officials are rewriting security procedures in an effort to disrupt the flow of drugs and other contraband into Maryland prisons.
Maryland Correction Commissioner Frank C. Sizer Jr. said the state is buying new screening devices to enable more careful scrutiny of all visitors and staff, and officials are imposing tighter restrictions on what prison employees can bring to work. Drug-sniffing dogs will be used more often, Sizer said, and an "interdiction team" will conduct surprise inspections at prisons where there are signs of problems.
Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover was the focus of investigations or searches over the last two years that involved employee contraband smuggling and inmate possession of weapons. The new security measures follow a March report by The Daily Times about a weeklong lockdown at the 3,000-inmate ECI that uncovered 19 handmade weapons.
Policy changes also come after a yearlong shutdown of an automotive repair shop at the medium-security prison in the wake of allegations in 2003 that an instructor smuggled tobacco into ECI through cars. In July, The Sun in Baltimore also detailed how banned items such as heroin, marijuana, pornographic videos, tobacco, cell phones and top-shelf liquor are routinely being smuggled past security checkpoints at Maryland prisons.
Much of the violence in the prisons stems from disputes over unpaid drug debts or struggles by gangs for control over the lucrative black-market trade in contraband, officials acknowledged.
"We believe if we can eliminate the (underground) economy, the level of violence will be substantially reduced," Sizer said.
The new procedures, most of which take effect early next month, target access points at the state's 27 prisons. The changes will affect 7,200 prison employees and thousands more vendors, visitors and volunteers who enter the prisons, according to George Gregory, a prison system spokesman.
At ECI and Poplar Hill, visitors of inmates should notice little change, Gregory said. "Visiting hours remain the same; there is nothing new with that," he said Thursday. "The screening process remains the same. How inmates receive mail, the whole nine yards is the same."
One of the major changes is to limit what prison employees can bring to work, Sizer said.
Correctional officers and other employees had been bringing in ice chests, backpacks, duffel bags and other items, which often did not get sufficient scrutiny, Sizer said.
The new rules require that employees bring no more food than they can eat during their shift, and that it be in clear plastic containers. The only beverages they can bring are bottles of water in factory-sealed plastic containers. Sizer said an officer was once caught using water bottles to smuggle vodka into a prison.
Also, correctional officers who bring in lunches rather than get meals from the cafeteria will have to store them in lounge refrigerators and eat them in the lounges.
The rules also prohibit staff from bringing cell phones, electronic devices or tobacco to work and from carrying more than $50 in cash.
A union official said that while not all of the changes are popular, correctional officers generally support Sizer's efforts.
While Sizer said the vast majority of corrections employees are honest, he acknowledged that a few corrupt officers have been smuggling contraband to prisoners.
Two officers were caught with drugs within the past month -- one as he allegedly tried to deliver marijuana and Ecstasy pills to inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup. The other was arrested after authorities said they found marijuana in her car in the parking lot of the women's prison in Jessup.