THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 d
CORRECTIONS
Continued from Page A-1 they have opportunities to better themselves while incarcerated ...,” the report stated. The report praised the quality of the staff at the different facilities, saying, “The demeanor of the officers and staff produces a much less tense environment for both the officers and the inmates.” In addition to the detention center, the study focused on the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Clarksburg and the county’s Pre-Release and Re-Entry Services facility in Rockville. The report found that the design of the detention center led to “stifling hot conditions” in some parts of the facility in the summer months, and that one of the facility’s housing pods was “unusable” because of a roof leak. The facility has a capacity of 200 inmates, but currently houses fewer than 130, Wallenstein said. The grand jury said the county’s Pre-Release and Reentry Services facility — an airy building on Nebel Road
FELDMAN
Continued from Page A-1 County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), among other officials and community leaders. His status as the front-runner drew calls from some to appoint a minority to the seat to add diversity to the county’s Senate delegation. University of Maryland engineering professor Bilal Ayyub was recruited by a group looking for a minority candidate, but withdrew in August. Hamza Khan, 25, of Potomac, a social media and public relations manager for several companies in Washington, D.C., announced Thursday that he plans to file for the seat. Central committee staff member B.J. Angstadt said the committee had received four applications for Feldman’s seat by late Thursday afternoon, but the names were not available to be released. Feldman said on Sept. 10 he tried to focus on why he would be the best candidate, but the conversation about diversity was an important one to have. The party has to recruit strong candidates from diverse backgrounds for future races, he said. Tufail Ahmad, who helped lead the call to appoint a minority legislator, said Thursday that his group had focused on the Senate opening and hasn’t discussed potential candidates for the delegate seat. He said he expects plenty of candidates for the position. It’s too early to tell whether
in Rockville — was in a state of “near disrepair.” The report found the county’s jail in Clarksburg to be in “excellent condition” and “well maintained.” At the facility on Thursday, Pre-Release and Re-Entry Services Chief Stefan LoBuglio called the grand jury’s assessment of the facility “hyperbole.” Improvements that were planned before the investigation were underway Thursday, as a construction crew installed ramps and other items to help make the facility handicapped accessible. Some air conditioners, locks and bathrooms need to be upgraded or replaced, LoBuglio said, adding that about $50,000 of improvements to the facility’s air conditioners would occur in the next few days. The building has had about 17,000 residents over the last 35 years and gets “a lot of wear and tear,” LoBuglio said. It is audited every three years by two separate agencies, as well as four times a year by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other inspecting his group would look to run a candidate against Feldman in the 2014 elections for the Senate seat, Ahmad said. Gabe Albornoz, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, said on Sept. 10 that he thinks the minority question sparked an important conversation about the need for diversity. But he said he thinks the party has put itself in a position to be successful in Montgomery and Maryland in general. “I firmly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that there’s a lot more right with this party than wrong,” Albornoz said. Feldman said he was happy to bring the three-month process of choosing a successor to Garagiola (D) to an end and was eager to begin his work in the Senate. Feldman said he’ll have to see what committee he gets on to set his legislative priorities, but he expects to continue his House of Delegates work promoting economic development and Montgomery’s biotech industry. He said he has some relationship with nearly all of the 46 other senators, and believes that will help him hit the ground running in the Senate. Candidates for the delegate position must be registered Democrats living in District 15. They should submit a resume and cover letter by 5 p.m. Oct. 7 to the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee at 3720 Farragut Ave., No. 303, Kensington, MD 20895; by email at MontgomeryDems@msn. com; or by fax at 301-946-1002.
officials, he said. “Our building is a well-designed building,” he said. The economic downturn forced the program to defer some maintenance. “We just haven’t recovered yet,” he said. The grand jury’s report also questioned why the prerelease facility only gave inmates 28 days to find a job after they arrive. Specially approved inmates arrive at the center as they near the end of their jail terms, and generally are given a month to find a job with assistance from staff. They stay at the center for an average of three to four months, Wallenstein said. “Given the state of the economy, it is unreasonable to expect that residents can find gainful employment within such a short time,” the report stated. The report also said that workers at the pre-release facility had a “We know what we are doing” culture among long-time corrections employees. “This has resulted in a lack of fresh perspective,” the report said. Corrections and reha-
sjbsmith@gazette.net
State police get help with gun applications n
Attorney General’s Office says process is legal BY DOUGLAS TALLMAN AND RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITERS
An opinion from an official in the state Attorney General’s Office says state employees from outside Maryland State Police can help deal with the backlog of applications for gun purchases. Del. Kevin Kelly (D-Dist. 1B) of Cumberland wrote the Attorney General’s Office Sept. 8 to rule on the legality of using the outside employees. The reply, from the office’s chief counsel, Adam D. Snyder, is that the system is legal. “Although I understand the concern, in my view the [Maryland State Police] does perform the review and investigatory functions under the arrangement discussed above; the [state police] has simply borrowed
employees from other units of the Executive Branch to enable it to effectively and efficiently perform the clerical work associated with carrying out its statutory duty,” Snyder wrote. “When entering data into the [state police] database, those employees function as the [state police’s] agents for that task,” he wrote. “I am not aware of any legal principle that would prevent one State agency from making its employees available to assist another State agency in this manner.” A controversial gun-control law that takes effect Oct. 1 will place new restrictions on buying certain weapons, prompting a surge in applications. To handle the backlog, up to 200 employees from the departments of Health and Mental Hygiene; Public Safety and Correctional Services; Human Resources; and Juvenile Services had been working since Sept. 6 to enter data from more than 38,000 applications.
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bilitations officials disputed those findings, as well. “Inmates are sent to the pre-release center to gain work, and everything in that program is focused on their return to the community — but not in a state of unemployment,” Wallenstein said, adding, “We just flat out disagree in total with that grand jury suggestion that we are too tough or push too hard for a job in 28 days in Montgomery County.” “It’s very strict. It holds you accountable for everything,” said Thomas Chatmon, 49, an inmate at the pre-release center finishing a 10-year federal prison sentence. The program helped him learn computer skills and kept him focused on the goals he first made when he entered the facility several months ago, he said. Prison, he said, “was almost like being spiritually and mentally dead. ... Coming to the PRC was like the beginning of life again.”
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