BALTIMORE (AP) — More than two dozen correctional officers in Baltimore were charged Tuesday with using excessive force on prisoners at state-operated jails in a city plagued by decades of institutional corruption, inside and outside jailhouse walls.
The 25 indicted officers are accused of assaulting and threatening detainees at correctional facilities, tampering with evidence and falsifying documents, said Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, whose office secured the indictments.
Maryland corrections secretary Robert Green said all the indicted officers have been on administrative leave since 2018, when the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services began investigating the allegations.
Gov. Larry Hogan said in a statement that his administration has no tolerance for corruption in the state’s correctional system.
“Our correctional officers have one of the most difficult jobs in all of public safety, and we will not let the criminal behavior of the few tarnish the great work of the nearly 5,000 dedicated officers who serve with distinction every single day,” he said.
In 2015, Maryland closed the men’s section of a state-run Baltimore jail that was notorious for its decrepit conditions, criminal activity and corruption. In 2013, a federal indictment exposed a sophisticated smuggling ring operating inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, involving dozens of gang members and correctional officers. The investigation also revealed a jailhouse gang leader had impregnated four female guards.
Corruption has infected many corners of Baltimore’s city government.
The city’s corruption-riddled police department remains under a federal consent following the April 2015 death of a young black man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody. The department also has been rocked by a string of indictments and guilty pleas by task force officers accused of extortion, robbery, falsifying evidence, reselling seized drugs.
Mosby said 21 of the 25 indicted officers were taken into custody Tuesday. All were members of a tactical unit with a paramilitary command structure operating inside four detention facilities in Baltimore.
The indicted officers face a combined total 236 counts, including charges of assault and participating in a criminal gang, Mosby said.
The indictment includes alleged offenses against 25 prisoners and incidents that occurred as far back as 2016, authorities said.