Monday, December 16, 2013

Barry Rascovar: Evaluating Ex-Corrections Chief Gary Maynard

Evaluating Ex-Corrections Chief Gary Maynard

http://politicalmaryland.com/2013/12/16/evaluating-ex-corrections-chief-gary-maynard/ Leave a reply By Barry Rascovar Dec. 16, 2013

NO GOOD DEED goes unpunished, they say. Retired Maryland Corrections Chief Gary Maynard can attest to that.

Had Maynard not turned to the FBI for help in investigating gang smuggling and complicity by prison guards at the Baltimore Detention Center, he’d be retiring with plaudits all around for his seven-year performance.

Instead, Maynard walks away with a mixed record.

Undone by the FBI

In 2011, Maynard’s department uncovered massive drug smuggling, sex and gang activity at the city jail that involved guards.

He could have arrested a few people at that time, called a press conference so the governor could gloat about the crackdown and ignored the deeper, more troubling problem — an out-of-control Detention Center filled with guards who were aiding inmate gang members.

But that’s not Maynard’s style.

Gary Maynard

A career prison manager — and retired brigadier general – he insisted on getting to the bottom of this problem. So he reached out to the FBI for assistance.

He got help, all right. What he didn’t expect was grandstanding.

The FBI held a flashy press conference to detail the outrageous criminal activity the bureau had uncovered.

But it failed to stress that Maynard had requested the two-year investigation. Instead, Maynard became the fall guy.