Gov. Larry Hogan announced he was closing the Baltimore City men’s jail on July 30. A few weeks later, the last inmate is leaving.
The final inmates are being transferred out of the jail on Tuesday, and the jail will officially be closed at 5 p.m., according to Hogan’s office. In all about 1,100 inmates were transferred to other jails in the Baltimore area as part of the process. About 770 employees were also transferred as a result of the move.
Despite a plan developed by a Democrat-led commission in the state legislature that was designed to close the notorious jail over a period of ten years, Hogan, a Republican, unilaterally decided to close the jail instead and said he didn’t even read the report. He said the building would likely be demolished, and there were no plans to build a new facility in its place.
Structural and maintenance issues plagued the 150-year-old collection of about a dozen buildings for years, and it become a infamous for corruption after the feds indicted members of the Black Guerilla Family gang and prison guards for running drugs and carrying on relationships inside the prison.
