(ANTIMEDIA) Baltimore, MD — It was reported last week that over 250 Maryland corrections officers have been arrested since January of 2013 — and well over 200 are still employed by Maryland’s corrections department.
Many of the arrests actually involve on the job corruption, but most of the officers have yet to face any actual consequences from their employers. In one case where officers actually were prosecuted, 24 correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were convicted in a massive conspiracy case, along with a number of prisoners. That case involved corrections officers smuggling drugs into the prison and becoming very close with the inmates. On more than one occasion, male inmates who ran prison gangs impregnated female prison guards.
Stephen Moyer, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, actually defended many of the officers who were arrested, saying the charges against them were “pretty outrageous.”
Maryland prisons are notorious for their terrible living conditions and corrupt employees. The Baltimore City Detention Center was forced to close earlier this year because it was uninhabitable.
Just this week at a prison housing inmates from the closed detention center, there was a massive fight where eight correctional officers and six detainees were injured.
The fight was reportedly the result of a corrections officer attacking an inmate. After the attack, other inmates refused to go into their cells and the prison staff initiated a “lock down” of the facility. When officers attempted to enforce the lockdown, a resulting clash left several on both sides injured.
The officer who started the altercation has not been named in the media, and it has not been indicated that he was held accountable in any way.