State Prisoner admitted to Laurel Regional Hospital - Dies

http://www.dailytimesonline.com/apps/pbcs....

A man who pleaded guilty in the February 2000 slaying of a Baltimore County police officer has died at Laurel Regional Hospital. State prison agency spokesman Mark Vernarelli says 37-year-old Richard Moore died Monday night, after he was taken to the hospital from the Jessup Correctional Institution. Vernarelli says there is no evidence of foul play in the death and says Moore had a history of serious medical problems. Feb 27, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 03/02/2008

Prisoner Escape from Mercy Medical Center thwarted

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...

An inmate accused in the fatal stabbing of a correctional officer in 2006 tried to escape yesterday evening while being examined at Mercy Medical Center, less than a mile from the Super Max prison where he was being held, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said. Feb 26, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 02/27/2008

Correctional officers fired ...ole in inmate’s escape

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...

Two correctional officers assigned to a maximum-security inmate who escaped from a Laurel hospital last month have been fired after an investigation showed departmental policies and procedures were not followed, state officials said Thursday. Feb 7, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 02/07/2008

PG Alert system proves effective after prisoner escape

http://gazette.net/stories/011008/laurnew1...

Prince George’s County’s Office of Homeland Security’s rapid-alert system made 35,000 phone calls to residents and businesses within a 2-mile radius of Laurel Regional Hospital on Jan. 2 after an armed prisoner overpowered guards and escaped from the hospital. The county’s Wide Area Rapid Notification system, or ‘‘WARN,” made the calls within seven minutes after Kelvin Poke, a Jessup Correctional Institution inmate, wrested a gun from a correctional officer, then carjacked a…

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/10/2008

Laurel Regional Hospital could readmit prisoners

http://gazette.net/stories/011008/laurnew1...

Laurel Regional Hospital and law enforcement officials plan to meet within the next two weeks to discuss policy changes that would allow the hospital to readmit prisoners as in-patients. This follows a Jan. 2 hospital announcement that it would no longer accept in-patients from prisons. Jan 10, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/10/2008

State, Hospital Study Escape & Security Measures

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?...

State and Laurel Regional Hospital officials are scrambling to figure out how an inmate who had been taken to the hospital with chest pains staged a dramatic, violent escape last week, and to come up with measures to prevent a repeat of the incident. Jan 10, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/10/2008

Inmate escape spotlights Maryland Corrections problems

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...

The “lax security” is indicative of the “serious problems Maryland has had with training of personnel” for a long time, he said. “Their corrections system has always been challenged.” Mr. Johnson noted that correctional officers receive training that is not as intensive as that of state troopers or police officers. Jan 8, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/08/2008

Escaped Convict Said He Did Not Want to Die in Jail

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=596&...

The prisoner who escaped from Laurel Regional Hospital this week had written in letters that he didn’t plan on dying behind bars. Forty-five-year-old Kelvin Poke died in a shoot-out with police after about seven hours on the run Wednesday. He had been serving a life sentence. Jan 5, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/05/2008

Laurel Regional Hospital Security

http://southlaurel.blogspot.com/2008/01/la...

In the wake of the two recent violent inmate escapes from Laurel Regional Hospital — only two months apart — i will be compiling selected representative news items as i find them about Laurel Regional Hospital Security in the NEWS section of this South Laurel Blog for community reference now and in future.

Filed under regional crime, LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/05/2008

Dimensions Healthcare System Letter Bans Some Inmates

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

The hospital system that includes the facility where a Maryland inmate escaped from custody this week will no longer accept prisoners for elective surgery or secondary care until the state’s security procedures are improved, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Jan 5, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/05/2008

3d Violent Prisoner Escape at Maryland Hospital in 2 Years

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gk6IZ9r...

The confrontation at Laurel Regional Hospital this week was the third in Maryland over the last two years. Similar escapes happened in that period in Blacksburg, Va.; Columbus, Ohio; Salt Lake City and Detroit. Guns are deterrents, but “what you find is, you’re in a situation where you’re introducing a weapon into an otherwise sterile environment, and that’s the downside,” said Tony York, president of the International Association for Health Care Security and…

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/05/2008

Laurel hospital won’t admit inmates

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...

Shaken by two violent escapes by prison inmates, a health care group that oversees Laurel Regional Hospital has told the state that it will no longer admit inmates as patients in non-emergency situations until new policies are put into place. Jan 4, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Inmate Fled After Being Uncuffed by Guard

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

The Maryland inmate who escaped from a Laurel hospital this week had been released from his handcuffs and was guarded by only one correctional officer, law enforcement sources said yesterday. Jan 4, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Investigators Review Guards’ Actions After Escape

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0108/4849...

One day after a Jessup Correctional Institution inmate escaped while undergoing treatment at Laurel Regional Hospital, an investigation is underway to determine if the corrections officers guarding the prisoner followed proper procedure. Only one armed officer was guarding 45-year-old Kelvin Poke when the 6-foot, 3-inch, 255-pound inmate made his play, overpowering the guard and grabbing the gun. A second guard, who was not armed, was apparently on a break. Poke had been let out of his ha…

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Prisoner Escapes From Hospital, and Police Later Kill Him

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/03esc...

Mr. Poke fled the hospital two days after he was admitted while complaining of chest pains. He was wearing leg shackles but not handcuffs and was on the hospital’s fourth floor when he overpowered several prison guards and took two guns, apparently discarding one before fleeing. Mr. Poke fired at his shackles inside the hospital and overpowered a hospital security guard who responded to the noise, the authorities said. He held the guard hostage as he made his way to the lobby, then fled…

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

ABC News: Cops Kill Prison Lifer Who Escaped Hospital

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=4075...

This aftertoon Maryland police shot and killed a carjacker who had earlier escaped from a local hospital after stealing a pair of guns from two guards, shooting a man in the head and carjacking two separate vehicles. Jan 2, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Escaped inmate is killed by police — baltimoresun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...

Kelvin D. Poke, 45, who was serving a life sentence for violent crimes including kidnapping, fled from the hospital after shooting off his leg shackles, prompting a lockdown of area schools and triggering a daylong manhunt involving hundreds of police officers from across the region. Jan 2, 2006

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Charleston Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.com/News/200801030615

Maryland’s state prison agency said Thursday it will review its policy of assigning armed guards to hospitalized inmates after a prisoner seized an officer’s gun and escaped from a hospital for the third time in two years. Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Rick Binetti said agency officials hope to discuss the issue next week with correctional officer union leaders, some of whom say it’s dangerous to bring firearms into community hospitals. …

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Wednesday’s prisoner escapee wasn’t first from hospital

http://www.examiner.com/a-1135416~Wednesda...

The escape Wednesday of a criminal from Laurel Regional Hospital was the second in less than two months and it had employees there on edge. “We have been hearing from members today,” said Ebs Burnough, political director for the Service Employees International Union local 1199, which represents about 1,700 workers in the county’s hospitals. “They’re upset, but they’re fine. They’re shaken.” Jan 3, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008

Security policies for sick inmates get closer look

http://washingtontimes.com/article/2008010...

Maryland prison officials said yesterday that they will review policies of assigning armed guards to inmates taken to hospitals, after an incident this week and two others in the past two years in which an inmate took an officer’s gun and fled. Jan 4, 2008

Filed under LRH Security by GaroldStone Added 01/04/2008