Mo' Money

Good news for prison guards: John Rowley, the new head of corrections in Maryland, has announced that the state will spend $7 million to upgrade security in jails across the state. Among the things to be improved: more surveillance cameras, new scanning equipment, expanded intelligence-gathering, and new prison vehicles. A hotline will also be established for prison staff to report threats and other security problems.

In the backdrop of these changes is the loss of support that Ehrlich has suffered among Maryland's correctional officers, many of whom live in the rural areas of the state, where Republicans normally do best. Already AFSCME Council 92, which represents many prison guards in Maryland, has endorsed Martin O'Malley. (I couldn't find similar information on the other prison guards' unions, or much information at all, for that matter.) Moreover, this influx of money, while necessary, will probably not do much to repair Ehrlich's image: As Ron Bailey of AFSCME notes, it seems more than coincidental that the Ehrlich administration is appropriating these funds just as Ehrlich's reelection campaign is about to kick into high gear.

The most intriguing part of the Sun article are the comments by Frank Sizer, the former head of corrections, who's apparently now gone into Michael Brown mode (emphasis mine):

In an interview Friday, Sizer said that many of the items are things he had requested money for in the past, but none was available in the budget.

He said he surveyed the need for additional surveillance cameras several months ago and that his department had complained for the past three years about the need to replace worn out vans and buses used to transport inmates and security vehicles used for patrols.

"I would have happily accepted that," Sizer said of the resources now being poured into the corrections system.

But he said buying new equipment isn't the real key to operating a safer prison system.

"We will not solve the problem until we do something that involves programming [for inmates] and we have a better trained staff with better supervision," Sizer said. "Buying all this equipment is equivalent to giving a kid a toy to pacify him."

It's not clear whether Sizer means the Ehrlich administration or the General Assembly was responsible for the security money not being appropriated sooner. But if the Ehrlich administration is able to get the money now, and have the General Assembly approve after the fact, as the Sun article says, we should ask: Why wasn't this done sooner?

Tags: Maryland, MD-Gov, prisons, Bob Ehrlich, Martin O'Malley