Baltimore Sun: Cummings Says U.S. Justice Department to tour Baltimore jail on Wednesday

Federal monitors have not toured jail since 2010 despite oversight agreement


The Department of Justice, which hasn't visited the Baltimore City Detention Center in nearly two years despite an agreement with the state to oversee reforms at the facility, will tour the jail today, according to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat, wrote a letter to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division earlier this month after The Baltimore Sun wrote about increasing concerns voiced by attorneys and youth advocates about conditions for juveniles held at the jail on adult charges.

In a statement, Cummings said he spoke Wednesday with Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy Austin who said monitors would be visiting today.

"This visit is urgently needed and if any unsafe or unsecure conditions are found, they must be immediately remedied," Cummings said.

At several court hearings in recent weeks, attorneys representing juveniles held at the facility have petitioned city judges to have them moved to the Juvenile Justice Center, saying that the dorm-style cells were leading to regular assaults and that youth did not have adequate supervision or medical care. State officials have strongly denied that youth are being harmed or that oversight is lax.

Since 2007, the Department of Justice has had an agreement with the state to provide oversight, which grew out of a report years earlier that criticized conditions and procedures at the facility for detainees, adult and juvenile.

It found that the jail was "deliberately indifferent to inmates' serious medical and mental health needs" and that "juveniles detained at the facility are not kept safe from potential harm by adult inmates."

The agreement was due to expire in 2011, but officials agreed that the state had not reached full compliance, and extended the oversight pact in April 2012. But federal officials confirmed to The Sun that they had not visited the jail since November 2010.

The jail has undergone a major shift in the past year in the way it oversees youths charged as adults. The state moved the juveniles to a separate annex, where they live in dorm-style cages that hold up to 32 youths. Previously, the young detainees were held two to a cell. The state said the move was made to foster socialization and provide a less restrictive environment.

Amid the recent complaints of the conditions, the youth detainees were moved into a new building that has air conditioning. One of the chief complaints was that the summer's extreme heat and lack of air conditioning in the previous building where they were being held was exacerbating medical problems for detainees.

"DOJ indicated that when their 2007 oversight agreement with the State of Maryland expired in 2011, the Baltimore City Detention Center was not yet in full compliance with the agreement's requirements," Cummings said in a statement. "The Detention Center needs to come into full compliance with any outstanding requirements and DOJ needs to ensure that compliance is achieved."