So, the Baltimore City Detention Center had a pretty bad year, what with those allegations of drug smuggling and inmate-guard sex and all that. But the best thing about a disaster is the opportunity it provides to do better next time. If only two Baltimore corrections officers get pregnant by an inmate in 2014, well, that’ll be significant progress!
But Martin O’Malley and other politicians are doing whatever they can to make sure things are much, much better next year. They’ve launched a legislative commission to review the current status of the state’s prisons and jails. Recently, the commission announced a host of recommendations ranging from small changes to major reforms. Here are a few things they think should be different. (Note: some of these are recommendations that may or may not go into effect.)
+Get rid of the current Baltimore City Detention Center. And replace it with a new one, of course.
+Give a polygraph (aka lie detector) test to anyone applying for a job at the jail.
+Start randomly searching 30 employees every shift. Like, searched down to their underwear.
+Hire 800 new employees.
+Point the security cameras at the staff, not the inmates.
Of course, finding 800 people who are willing to strip down to their underwear and take a lie detector test might be tricky. “Right now, the morale is low,” corrections officer Cory Trusty told NPR. Yeah, I bet.
