Gov. Larry Hogan is reportedly poised to announce the closure of the Baltimore City Detention Center, which a federal probe revealed in 2013 as being riddled with corruption, from smuggling to sex between inmates and guards.
Hogan will announce the facility's closure Thursday afternoon, according to multiple local media outlets. Citing a state senator and union officials, the AP reports that the jail's inmates will be transferred to nearby facilities.
The investigation that was unveiled in the spring of 2013 resulted in the indictment of "25 people — including 13 women working as corrections officers" on racketeering and drug charges, as the Two-Way reported. In total, 44 defendants faced charges in the case.
"The Civil War era jail was taken over by the state in 1991," The Baltimore Sun reports, adding that the jail " – which has 1,092 male inmates, including 145 awaiting trial — is part of a larger complex of corrections facilities just east of downtown Baltimore."
n addition to running a lucrative smuggling operation that centered on cellphones, drugs, and other contraband, federal prosecutors also said that "one of the prisoners, a gang leader named Tavon White, fathered children with four female corrections officers," as NPR's Scott Simon said in 2013. "Two of them even have his name tattooed on their bodies.
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