'Baltimore City Detention Center is a Disgrace': Hogan Announces Facility Shutdown

The Baltimore City Detention Center will close, effective immediately, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday afternoon.

“Frankly, the Baltimore City Detention Center is a disgrace, and its conditions are horrendous,” Hogan said during a news conference.

The facility at 401 East Eager Street was “consistently beleaguered by floods and sewage” and presented “serious safety hazards,” not to mention the “decades of investigations” coming out of the facility, he said.

There were 27 corrections officers indicted in recent years as the result of an investigation into the Black Guerrilla Family, which was operating within the facility and conspired with officers to smuggle drugs, money and cell phones into the facility. Hogan said inmates were “literally running the prison,” according to NPR.

He said the detention center has been “a black eye on our state” and called it the “worst prison in America,” noting it was the only city prison run by the state government.

Added Hogan: “Frankly, I cannot understand why this action didn’t happen years ago.”

Closing the detention center will save the state $10 to $15 million a year, the Associated Press reported.

Employees will transferred to other locations, and those staying at the facility will be moved to other facilities “in Baltimore City or nearby areas,” Hogan said.

There are more than 700 people living at the detention center now and it is unclear when they will be moved, according to WBAL.

The state plans to tear down the detention center, which was built in the Civil War era, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives.