Inmate

A Washington County Circuit judge will decide whether statements a county jail inmate made during a disciplinary hearing can be used to prosecute him in a drug case. Judge John H. McDowell on Thursday heard testimony and arguments during a suppression hearing in the case of Ronald E. Wilson II, 35, charged with conspiring to bring Suboxone into the Washington County Detention Center, a conspiracy that included a former correctional deputy, according to court records. The incidents for which Wilson is accused took place on Nov. 2 and 3, 2011, court records said.

A former deputy at the Washington County Detention Center will be sentenced at a later date after pleading guilty this week in Circuit Court to taking drugs to an inmate at the jail. Leslie Allen Martin Jr., 30, of Hagerstown pleaded guilty to distribution of Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, court records said. Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. granted attorney John Salvatore's request for a presentence investigation. Martin's bond was revoked, and he was taken to the detention center Thursday, but Salvatore said his client would likely be taken to a jail in a neighboring county to await sentencing.

A man convicted of trying to smuggle drugs into his father who was an inmate at Roxbury Correctional Institution last year was sentenced Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court to five years in state prison. Edward Dennis Dorsey Jr., 20, of Pikesville, Md., pleaded guilty Thursday to possession with intent to deliver morphine and resisting arrest in the June 27 incident at the prison. Judge Donald E. Beachley sentenced him to 15 years in prison with 10 years suspended. Dorsey had gone to the prison on June 27 to visit Edward Dennis Dorsey, according to the application for statement of charges.

A man currently incarcerated in Pennsylvania was indicted Thursday on a charge of murder in the 2004 slaying of a Martinsburg man who had worked as a confidential police informant, according to the Berkeley County prosecutor's office. Eric L. Johnson, aka “Butter,” 36, was indicted on one count of murder, according to the indictment released by Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely's office. Johnson is currently incarcerated in federal prison in Bradford, Pa., on drug charges, Games-Neely said.

Four correctional officers at the Maryland Correctional Institution - Hagerstown were treated for injuries they suffered while restraining an inmate Wednesday morning, state prison officials said. The incident started when an officer was struck by an inmate as he prepared to escort the inmate to a medical appointment, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said in a news release. Other officers immediately responded to the assault, using pepper spray and physical force to restrain the inmate, the release said.

Jerome Taylor said he walked away from a work detail at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in June to speak with his wife - a conversation that will cost him another 2 1/2 years in prison. Taylor, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree escape Thursday and was sentenced to the additional prison time by Judge Donald E. Beachley. "Mr. Taylor did this because there was something going on, and he wanted to talk to his wife," Assistant Public Defender Carl Creeden told Beachley.

A Washington County Detention Center inmate was charged with possessing contraband after authorities found prescription medications she had concealed in her body, police said. Kristie Ann Foster, 30, of Hagerstown, is believed to have had the medications inside her body when she was brought to the detention center on Thursday, according to a Washington County Sheriff's Office news release. Police said that deputies discovered 30 doses of Seboxone, 13 doses of Nadalol, four doses of 800 mg Ibuprofen and 15 doses of Benadryl, which is the only over-the-counter medication of the group.

Most people know by now that there's no appreciable difference between the cost of a hotel room and the cost of imprisoning an inmate for a day. Most people also know that all levels of government are experiencing financial difficulties at the moment. So any form of progress ive punishment that protects the public and saves money at the same time deserves serious consideration. Enter what's known as a day reporting center, which, in the vernacular, subtracts the costly “three hots and a cot” from the traditional incarceration model.

A state prison inmate who died last week after being found unresponsive in his cell at North Branch Correctional Institution died from strangulation, Maryland State Police said in a press release Monday. Lewis J. Thompson Jr., 57, was found unresponsive in his cell at the maximum-security prison in Allegany County by correctional officers on Dec. 8. His death has been ruled a homicide. An autopsy was conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. The investigation into Thompson's death is being conducted by the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit.

Maryland's prison chief said this week that a reorganization of the state prison system will reduce recidivism and improve the way inmates re-enter society upon their release. Gary D. Maynard, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said Wednesday that part of the reorganization involves incarcerating prisoners in the same region where they committed their crimes. "Offenders that come into the system stay in that region, and when they re-enter they stay in that region," Maynard said in a telephone interview.