FEMINISM has resulted in many terrific career opportunities for women, but few fields previously closed to them due to stubborn convention are as rich with novel opportunities as prison work.

According to federal prosecutors, 13 female “corrections officers” were enjoying their careers so much that they essentially handed control of the Baltimore City Detention Center over to a gang, helping gang members sell and smuggle drugs and offering them tough love on the side, The Washington Post reported yesterday. A leader of the Black Guerilla Family fathered five children in the Baltimore jail with four of the guards since 2009. Two of the women had tattoos of the gang leader’s name, perhaps tip-offs to the authorities that something was not quite right. Ann Marimow and John Wagner report:

The guards allegedly helped leaders of the Black Guerilla Family run their criminal enterprise in jail by smuggling cellphones, prescription pills and other contraband in their underwear, shoes and hair. One gang leader allegedly used proceeds to buy luxury cars, including a Mercedes-Benz and a BMW, which he allowed some of the officers to drive.

“The inmates literally took over ‘the asylum,’ and the detention centers became safe havens for BGF,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt, using shorthand for the prison gang’s name.

These women now face various federal charges and will probably be inmates themselves someday, which is more sad news for their children. Maryland Governor  Martin O’Malley is not happy at the extent to which these corrections officers pursued their careers:

“We have zero tolerance for corruption among correctional officers, and we will continue striving to make all correctional facilities as secure as they can possibly be.”

Zero tolerance sounds very serious. Gary D. Maynard, head of Maryland’s prisons, insists the loss of control of the jail had nothing to do with the fact that the guards were women and the prisoners were men. Marimow and Wagner write:

The issue, he said, was this particular group of “bad actors,” who were strategically targeted and were willing to break the law.

— Comments —

A reader writes:

I know Lawrence Auster said many times that conservatives shouldn’t be biological determinists,but I wonder if the children of such worthless people will ever be civilized and productive members of our society.

It’s worth mentioning that probably many of these women became correction officers through affirmative action.

Laura writes:

There could not be more depressing circumstances in which to be born.

Jill Farris writes:

Inquiring minds want to know…did the women all get paid maternity leave? How did they keep the place functioning with all those pregnant “officers?” Sheesh.

Laura writes:

I wonder what it’s like having a mother who comes home from work wearing a prison uniform and a holster — and knowing that she left Daddy at work.

Alex writes:

Judging by the names of some of these females, conveniently hidden on page two of the article (Katera, Chania), racial solidarity with the convicts seems to have been a factor as well. Not only do blacks not convict blacks, but blacks also don’t enforce prison rules against convicted blacks even when it’s their job, it seems.

 Laura writes:

They are connected to the Black Guerilla Family, obviously a black gang. Besides, most inmates in Baltimore jails are black.

Alex writes:

Laura writes:

There could not be more depressing circumstances in which to be born.

And:

I wonder what it’s like having a mother who comes home from work wearing a prison uniform and a holster — and knowing that she left Daddy at work.

Yes, sure, but at some point one cannot help thinking that if a group keeps behaving like that, then maybe they don’t really see these circumstances as depressing, but rather as normal and natural. Otherwise, would they keep choosing to live like that?

Everything they do in life is the direct opposite of what we do, yet we still haven’t fully realized just how depressingly much they are not like us.

Laura writes:

Many black children have fathers in jail, so the circumstances for these particular children are not uncommon. Not quite “the direct opposite” of what we do, but very different. Especially today. During the first half of the 20th century, before the civil rights era, most black births were not illegitimate.

James N. writes:

We continue to believe that “doing what comes naturally” is the same for men and for women, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Men, absent faith in God and obedience to his commandments, will spread their seed to the maximum extent feasible, unless constrained by custom or law. Women, under the same circumstances, will seek out the strongest, bravest, and boldest man to father their children.

We are in denial about the mostly black culture that we have created in our “inner cities.” (How easily that rolls off the tongue; “inner” meaning “inhabited by blacks!”) For these women, their mate, even though incarcerated, can offer them more in the way of protection (and thrills) than any poor black man living an honest life.

Buck writes:

A friend sent me the link to the Washington Post story. I replied to him:

“a jailhouse seemingly out of control” ? Dat ain nutt’n. Have you seen this? (It’s the full thirty minute video of inmate drug use, gambling and gun play in a Orleans Parish Prison cell.)

He replied: “There is no way this country survives. I don’t even know how we function.”

It is remarkable that ths country seems to still function as well as it does. How much longer can the delusion last?

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