Federal Detention Center Sought in Md.

A sharp decline in recent weeks in the jail space Montgomery County has available for federal pretrial detainees has contributed to a "crisis" that some law enforcement officials say underscores the need for a federal jail in Maryland.

Because the state has no such facility, detainees awaiting trial in U.S. District courts in Greenbelt and Baltimore are housed at county jails and other facilities as far away as Ohio. But the number of federal detainees has risen steadily, even as those facilities -- where inmate numbers are also swelling -- have less and less space to spare.

"Our count has gone up consistently since February, and in the last 30 days our population has gone up almost 100 prisoners," said Arthur M. Wallenstein, Montgomery's corrections chief. "We told [federal authorities] we couldn't take any new prisoners at all because any available space had to go for county prisoners."

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein asked Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) to reconsider, noting in a letter last month that the number of federal detainees held in Montgomery had dropped from as many as 90 to fewer than 20 and that the difficulty of housing detainees has escalated into "a crisis . . . in the federal criminal justice system."

With the county jail near Clarksburg unable to house new detainees, authorities must find space in jails in Prince George's, Charles and Howard counties, as well as in facilities even farther from the courts in Baltimore and Greenbelt.

Although local officials have in the past resisted the idea of building a federal jail in Maryland, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys said that holding detainees in facilities scattered across several states is a deeply flawed alternative. In addition to being more expensive and riskier, they say, it isolates detainees from their families, attorneys and law enforcement officials with whom they might want to meet.

Maryland U.S. Marshal Johnny L. Hughes, who is responsible for housing and transporting detainees, said the current arrangement has become more difficult to manage as the number of federal detainees has climbed from about 100 two decades ago to nearly five times that last year.

Peter J. Messitte, a judge at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, said of building a federal jail, "We are in a situation where we simply are prepared to say we have to do this."

The idea of building such a facility in Maryland has been discussed, sometimes heatedly, for years. In 2003, a proposal to build a 1,750-bed federal jail met with fierce resistance from elected officials, some of whom said the community had not been adequately consulted. When the Justice Department solicited bids, without public input, for a private company to own and operate the facility, U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) decried the process as having been "done as a sweetheart deal in the middle of the night."

The Justice Department is not currently proposing to build a federal jail in Maryland, and supporters of the idea are attempting this time to more effectively explain to the public what they see as the need for such a facility.

"Ultimately, there is going to have to be a political solution," said James Wyda, Maryland's chief federal public defender, who is part of a committee of lawyers studying the issue. "We need to do a better job of explaining this to the decision makers."

The committee, formed by the Federal Bar Association, has produced a report that says, "The current patchwork system is dangerous, expensive and threatens both the court system and the rights of those detained."

A facility designed to house 625 inmates would cost $69 million to build, the report estimates. Taking into account the costs associated with housing detainees in other facilities, construction of a federal jail might save more than $30 million over two decades, the report says.

Although many supporters of such a facility have taken no position on where it might be built, some committee members favor a site in Baltimore. That issue is likely to be contentious, and, for now, many supporters are more focused on articulating why a federal jail is needed.

Lacking its own jail, the marshal's office must find space for 500 or more detainees each day. The office said it reimbursed local jurisdictions more than $14.2 million for housing detainees during the year ending Sept. 30 and paid $267,640 for some of those jurisdictions to transport detainees.

The marshal is also responsible for the logistically complex task of ensuring that detainees make it to scheduled court appearances. The many hours of travel involved increase the chance of escape, Hughes said. "There's a safety factor not only for my deputies, but for the public," he said.

Asked about the possibility of a federal jail being built in Maryland, Mikulski reiterated her opposition to the 2003 plan.

"None of the sites that the Office of Federal Detention proposed were cleared by the local community," she wrote in an e-mail. "I am opposed to putting a prison in any Maryland community who does not want it."