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Sunday, July 16, 2017

A Viewer Writes: Poplar Hill Pre-Release Unit Closing 7-12-17

It has been put on the table again for budget cuts to shut down Poplar Hill Pre-Release Unit. 

Again, this will not help the C.O. shortage at ECI. This will be a big problem for our local communities. Poplar Hill provides inmate workers in the community who clean up our roadways and work in the community for very little cost to the county and city governments. There are only 25 C.O.s at Poplar Hill and if it shuts, a lot of them will retire. 

Closing Poplar Hill will not help anyone, not the communities, not the staff, not ECI, or any hope of inmate rehabilitation. Inmates will be released without any job skills or jobs, right back into our neighborhoods. 

You know what will happen next. I’m sure somewhere over the bridge, there is a better answer to cut some fat off the budget. The Eastern shore is working on bare bones already.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just release them. They'd get out anyway.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a good idea to close this facility. Get the prisoners from other places to pick up trash and do other productive work. The place has always been a retirement home for CO 's and prisoners. They could make it a temporary staging place for illegals to be sent back to central america. We could keep it open to for John Cannon and Jake Day to spend their upcoming time while incarcerated , teach them how to be honest , pick up trash , cut grass with the illegal mexicans. Just thinking out of the box . Good place for CR to dry out .

Anonymous said...

sounds like a lot of jobs for not many pre release inmates. someones not happy their gravy train is coming to an end!

Anonymous said...

These pos end up walkung around salisbury causing crime CLOSE IT.

Anonymous said...

I never see any prisoners out picking up trash on the west side of the County. Just where do they perform this task?

Anonymous said...

Just another case of 'conservatives' demanding budget cuts until it is in their own backyard. Make sure instead of closing worthless post offices and scaling back Saturday deliveries, we open more post offices and add Sunday deliveries.

Anonymous said...

Looks like fruitland is going to have to start paying for trash guys now,no more inmate workers riding around town on the back of the trash truck scoping out your house for when they get out. And yes everyone that lives in fruitland the guys who ride on the back of the trash truck are inmates

Anonymous said...

Close both ECI and Poplar Hill. Send those prisoners back across the bridge to be released!

What a Godsend that would be for ALL of us!

Anonymous said...

I agree with first response they broke out all the time anyway walked right off work details, automatic 3 day pass you might as well have given them.

Anonymous said...

Joe

Ever see the commercial for a bank robbery ? And the security guard says i am only a monitor ?...well Fake jake say it also i aint no mayor im just a monitor for the bury .....by the way i heard there was a doa overdose behind Royal Farms yesterday keep up the great work pt police chief and mayor AKA monitors.

Anonymous said...

John cannons connections to from his so called leadership to his buissness needs to be looked at with a microscope.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it can be a zombie overdose rescue unit.

Anonymous said...

This place is the dumping ground for ctiminals to be dumped in dabury.

Anonymous said...

Inmates should have to work and grow food for the communities they abuse. Worked hard and fed little.

Concerned Retiree said...

As for as the Eastern Shore working on bare bones in the Correctional system is nothing new. All of Corrections are working short according to a staffing plan that is so top heavy. This comes from the "Good Ole Boy" system. They load up on supervisory / Administration positions so they promote their "Good Ole Boys". This starts in Baltimore where Headquarters can cut their staffing by 50% and get rid of wasteful positions. These positions from Headquarters down to each Institution are 90% idiots who cannot do their jobs and need all these helpers to make them appear knowledgeable. State / Governments has no accountability, that is why there is so much waste. The State / Government wants no accountability.

Anonymous said...

There are violent criminal on the eastern shore too. There should be barbed wire around Salisbury, Cambridge and Crisfield. Ok, let them serve their sentence in Baltimore. Away from any family and anyone or anything they know. They will all get out some day. You think they will be happy or rehabilitated when they come back? They will be worse. No job training, no job leads, no education, no family contact, right back to your back yard. Better get that chain link fence and iron bars on your doors and window then......

Anonymous said...

And SCOPING out your Property.?

Anonymous said...

AMEN !!!!

Anonymous said...

Prices going to go up!

Anonymous said...

People say send them across the bridge, lock them up & throw away the key. Let's spend more of our taxes on a roof over their heads, food and clothing. They get released and they will Return home on the Eastern Shore jobless, uneducated, addicted and breaking into your home while you sleep. Or keep a place open like PHPRU where most of the inmates are working and some are paying room and board back to the state. They are released with a job and they save enough money for a place to live. But, no let's keep them locked up, because they will never returned home. We are safe. Now I have to get rid of my chained link fence and risk having a jobless opioid addicted ex inmate in my backyard that no one can see waiting for me to return home with my kids.

Anonymous said...

Exactly criminals are from here and will come back here. Closing pre-release facilities is a danger to society. It does nothing for correcting or rehabilitating an inmate while they are serving their sentence for their crime. Pre release units are a way for the inmate to learn skills, get their GED and even have a job lined up when they are released, so they won't be breaking into local homes, or all drugged out having to steal or worse.
It is time to think about this a new way. They will get out. Do you want them to get out like they went in, only angrier and with no skills? or get out with a GED,skills and a JOB. No section 8, no food stamps, no living off taxpayer money?

Anonymous said...

I say close the facility in real numbers and lawsuit liability paying county and state employees to babysit inmates out of the cage is a bad idea.

Anonymous said...

If ECI left it would be a huge hit for the local economy. Hands down they have the highest average pay with over 1,000 employees in Somerset Co.

Most of the whiners are either ex inmates or people who were rejected in the hiring process.

Anonymous said...

Right you are 1:24!!!

Anonymous said...

And it's funny how the Department of Corrections it making statements that it is just a rumor and it is not definite yet. Meantime inmates are already being moved. Staff have already been reassigned. Lets make this a quick wool over everyone's eyes so no one can organize a stink and it will already happen before anyone knows it. How underhanded....

Anonymous said...

You know all this negative talk but you would not feel the same way if your family member was it in ECI or popular Hill how would you feel if it was your family member that you say send him over the bridge people do change just because people make mistakes does not mean they have to live with it and be judged for the rest of their lives no one made you God or a judge or jury

Anonymous said...

Some of the guys locked up arent bad people they just maybe made a bad decision that got them in trouble.How about you ride the back of the trash truck when its 100° and get paid $80 a month .

Anonymous said...

Call over there, they are still saying nothing is definite. Don't believe it. Inmate transfer locations are in place. There is a list made. A week from Monday, PHPRU will be locked up tight. Don't let the lies on the other end of the phone fool you. It is a big wool over the public's eyes.

Anonymous said...

This is 100% True..... they are shipping out a bunch Monday. Nothing to do with shortages at PHPRU. If they were truly worried about the staff shortages, they could have closed up months ago. It is Maryland new fiscal year, the want to use PHPRU funds else where (ECI). And this is not TEMPORARY.. They are lying their asses off.

Anonymous said...

This article is incredibly one sided. Closing will save tax dollars and there are plenty of jail birds available to do the same work.

Anonymous said...

YES PLEASE close ECI. The shore was so much better before. All the thugs family members follow them over here and when released they stay. Close it please!

Anonymous said...

Poor inmates. They should be kept in a cage away from decent people and then let go far far away preferably in AFGHANISTAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Lwet's look at the ramificaions without EMOTION.

Anonymous said...

You're so full if it. Try facts instead of B.S. ECI is not an economic stimulus for the area. The increase in law enforcement as a result of increased crime more than offsets.

Anonymous said...

All part of the clean up. The gravy train has left the station. Plus I am sick of all these thugs and punks being let go in our county. The only only thing telling the thugs from the C.O.s is the clothing. Crooked M.F.rs

Anonymous said...

Jails are built every where. No community really wants a jail. However sending someone miles away from their family isn't a easy thing on both accounts. People are people and regardless to whatever they've done. They still deserve rights. As we see so much corruption from the legal side.

Anonymous said...

Well it is true. If ECI closes, Somerset County will be out of work. Then the thugs will really be on the shore. More than they already are. Open your eyes. They are here and ECI didn't bring them. All they did was bring JOBS.
Inmates did a lot of the grunt work that everyone else with "a sense of being too good for that" won't do. ECI closes, watch the lines at social services.
No one appreciates a good thing until it's gone. The thugs will never go away, it's too late for that.

Happily Retired Officer said...

Some very interesting comments on here. Firstly, some of you need to go back to school. Some should only speak to what they know. I actually worked at PHPRU and retired from there 12 years ago. I was involved in the last temporary closure. The reason for it then is the same reason now. The State of Md waste so much money at the top and most sensible people don't want to be Correctional Officers. Our system is filled with corruption and everyone should be very thankful people do go in these horrible places to help keep extremely dangerous people behind bars. Best to all my brothers in blue. God Bless and stay strong.

Anonymous said...

Doors are locked. The staff has been told where to report. The inmates are miserable because their new location has been trashed by the inmates that had to leave. Their conditions are worse than being locked up as a Medium security inmate. From pre-release to worse conditions on the compound. But most of this group will be quite happy about it. Those who were forced to work elsewhere are not. I hope the family members of these inmates, and the employers start making phone calls and writing letters to the governor and the commissioner. I know a lot of people already did. The employers will get hit hard, the counties will see the backlash. I will remember this next election.