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| A New Push to Build Federal Jail in Maryland |
| By The Baltimore Sun |
| Published: 02/06/2006 |
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After years of debate and ill-fated proposals, Maryland judges, lawyers and law enforcement officials are reviving the idea of building a federal detention center for prisoners from Maryland. The U.S. Marshals Service does not have a jail of its own in Maryland to house inmates awaiting trial in the state, so beds have to be found daily in jails and prisons in three states for about 500 federal prisoners from Maryland. And the number is growing. The number of prisoners locked up on federal charges in Maryland has doubled during the past eight years, officials said. A new program by the U.S. attorney to target more offenders for gun crimes is expected to push the number behind bars even higher. At the same time, crowding has forced local jails to restrict the number of federal prisoners they agree to put up. Conditions worsened this month when Montgomery County notified the U.S. Marshals Service that its jail would no longer be able to accommodate the approximately 50 federal inmates it currently holds. In a rare step, more federal judges are speaking out in the public debate, coming down on the side of a new federal detention center. Baltimore U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz raised the issue when he was chief judge in the late 1990s. Also, a working group of the Federal Bar Association's Maryland chapter is circulating a draft report on the issue that concludes Baltimore is probably the best location. "The bottom line is, you're paying for motel space for individuals when you know you're going to have to house 500 people a day," said Cy Smith, the Baltimore attorney leading the effort on behalf of the bar association. "Instead of paying retail, you could build a facility yourself, make sure it's a secure facility whose only purpose is to house federal prisoners and do it in a cost effective way." His group's draft report estimates that the legal system spends $15 million a year renting inmate space in other jails and prisons, including the state's Supermax prison just north of downtown Baltimore, and reimbursing marshals and defense attorneys for travel expenses. A new prison to house about 625 inmates would cost an estimated $68 million in federal funds to build, Smith said. |
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