25 guards fired or on leave; source, inmate detail abusesWith 25 correctional officers facing termination or already fired, a probe that began last month into whether they beat inmates at two Western Maryland prisons has grown into one of the most extensive investigations in years for the state penal system.
Detectives are working with state police and local prosecutors investigating several encounters between inmates and officers in early March at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown and the North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland. So far, 17 officers from RCI have been fired and eight officers from North Branch are on paid administrative leave, prison officials said.
Gary D. Maynard, the state secretary of public safety and correctional services, said in an interview yesterday that the discipline involves an "unusually high number of officers," but not all were involved in an assault. He said some were believed to have lied to investigators, covered up for colleagues or failed to intervene.
Of the 8,000 correctional officers guarding 23,000 inmates in Maryland, Maynard said, "99.9 percent of them are hard-working and dedicated, and follow policy and state law."
Baltimore Sun