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Completed detention center about a year away Mary Paramore Harford County is about one year away from having a fully operational expanded detention facility for inmates awaiting trail or sentencing, or convicts serving sentences of 18 months or less. Sheriff Jesse Bane was guest speaker at the Havre de Grace Chamber of Commerce meeting Sept. 10. Although Bane spoke about the history of the sheriff’s department, he handed out information to bring the public up to date regarding the expanded facility, for which ground was broken in October of 2008 and completion is called for by contract in September of 2010. When finished, the expanded Harford County Detention Center will be more than 90,000 sq. ft, about 14,000 sq. ft. larger than the present facility, and will hold an additional 288 prisoners. At capacity, the expanded facility will hold 762 inmates. The expansion cost taxpayers almost $30 million, with a little more than half coming from county funds. State grants contributed about $13 million to the project. The Harford County Detention Center first opened in 1973 with a capacity of 100 inmates. Capacity was increased to 474 with an expansion in 1997. The facility has an additional 33 beds that are considered temporary, i.e. medical, isolation and classification housing, and not included in total capacity. Staff members at the Harford County Detention Facility are charged with the care, custody and control of inmates from their initial processing to serving sentences. Because the facility is the entry point for every person accused of committing a crime in Harford County, even persons charged with more serious crimes that carry jail terms of longer than 18 months are housed at the facility until their transfer to the appropriate state or federal correctional institution. During his presentation, Bane noted that, although Bel Air, Aberdeen and Havre de Grace each maintain their own police departments, taxpayers within these municipalities benefit from services provided by his department because of the consolidated prisoner processing system. “The Sheriff is the jailer, so the municipalities don’t have to pay for maintaining a jail and housing prisoners. Municipal officers are not tied up processing people they’ve arrested,” Bane said. As decreed by the state’s constitution, the Sheriff’s Office tends to court matters, election security and serves as the primary law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction. Bane noted that, should a town disband its police department, the Sheriff’s Office would take back law enforcement duties within the town’s or city’s limits. |
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