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14 THE BALTIMORE SUN NEWS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015 RESPOND EDITORIALS Hogan and the jail Our view: The governor needlessly politicizes a routine legislative hearing and obscures a newsworthy presentation by his own administration -1 TT 4 t's a shame that Gov. Larry Hogan used a Facebook post to politicize Tuesday's legislative hearing on the closure of the Baltimore City Detention Center because it obscured what was an extremely substantive, newsworthy and well received briefing by his corrections secretary, Stephen Moyer. Mr. Hogan's surprise announcement in late July that he would close the antiquated facility, while almost universally welcomed, raised a number of legitimate questions about the logistics of the move and the future of the facility. On Tuesday, Mr.

Moyer provided answers that assuaged most of those concerns and served as a credit to the enlightened, bipartisan criminal justice policy reforms Mr. Hogan has been working with legislators to foster. When Mr. Hogan announced the jail's closure, he provided few specifics on what would become of the pre-trial detainees that were housed there, other than to say that they would be transferred to other facilities in the correctional system. Mr.

Moyer filled in the blanks. The portion of the Baltimore correctional complex that has been closed, the Civil War-vintage Men's Detention Center, held about 850 pre-trial detainees. Mr. Moyer said Tuesday that he was able to find space for them in other parts of the Baltimore complex by moving sentenced inmates to other facilities throughout the region and even to other parts of the state. Those inmates had been sentenced to 18 months or less in jail, and it's not ideal to house them far from home because it makes it more difficult for those men to maintain the ties to their communities that they will need for successful re-entry.

(Mr. Moyer said he is trying to ameliorate the situation through teleconferencing.) But it is at least comforting to know that the administration kept all pre-trial detainees who need more frequent access to their attorneys and the courts in the same complex. Another puzzle from the governor's initial announcement was his claim that the closure would save the state $10 million to $15 million a year. Mr. Moyer said he was unable to provide specific numbers indeed, he steered clear entirely of the $15 million figure but he did explain how he expected to save money through the closure.

In part, the issue is avoiding maintenance costs for the dilapidated building. It is still used in a limited way to transport detainees from Central Booking to other parts of the complex, and it still houses the technology officials installed to prevent unauthorized use of celphones by inmates and detainees, but it is otherwise completely empty. But a major part of the savings equation is that the jail's antiquated design required more staffing than a modern facility would. Poor sightlines meant the building needed more corrections officers to monitor the detainees. Transferring those workers to other facilities enabled the department to fill vacancies and cut down on overtime.

Finally comes the question of whether the Hogan administration believes it has arrived at a permanent solution. Mr. PATRICK SEMANSKY ASSOCIATED PRESS On Tuesday, Gov. Larry Hogan needlessly picked a fight about a routine legislative briefing on the Baltimore jail closure. Moyer strongly suggested that it does not.

He noted that the state has typically picked up half or more of the tab for local jurisdictions to build jails but that little if any has been invested in Baltimore. "I do not believe in building bigger jails," he added, "but I do believe in having an ethical, adequate, modern jail for people that commit violent crimes in Baltimore." During the O'Malley administration, the legislature had blessed a 10- to 15-year plan to replace buildings in the city corrections complex. Mr. Moyer indicated Tuesday that he is formulating recommendations for what to do with the Men's Detention Center and the complex generally but has not yet presented them to the governor. More broadly, Mr.

Moyer highlighted the work being done by the state's Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council, a joint effort by the Hogan administration, the legislature, the courts and the attorney general's office, suggesting that the future involves fewer people locked up and more people monitored and provided services in the community. It was a reduction in arrests and in pretrial detentions that made the closure of the detention center possible, and he said he expects the trend to continue. The hearing as a whole was notably productive and collegial. Toward the end, several Democrats thanked Mr. Moyer profusely for the briefing and congratulated him on how well he had executed the closure of the jail.

It's hard to fathom, then, that the governor posted on his Facebook page about halfway through the briefing a tirade against a "small band of out-of-touch legislators" who "want to try somehow to defend the indefensible status quo" by calling a hearing on the jail closure. It's even harder to fathom that his communications office continued to defend the post after the fact. Being a Republican governor in Maryland is hard. Mr. Hogan really ought to stop making it harder.

Stop the testing madness To Stephanie R. Iszard's question, "Where do we go from here?" results shock leaders" Oct. 28) after students resoundingly underperformed expectations on the PARCC tests, I say that the answer is very clear: Stop using this test. As the parent of a Baltimore City Public Schools student who was in 8th grade last year, I can attest that my very bright daughter and her equally bright and motivated fellow students were, in turns, dismayed, demoralized, and ultimately motivated to sabotage these time-wasting, resource-wasting, ill-conceived exercises. I am willing to bet my last dollar that they performed progressively worse as the multi- day testing went on.

I am shocked not at the test results but at the hand-wringing by these board members. Where have they been for the last year? With their heads in the sand? Have they truly and utterly ignored the concerns and complaints by teachers, parents and students? The poor results are not a comment on the students, teachers or even the schools. They are a comment on the tests. We fully supported our daughter's complete boycott of all testing last year, including the MSAs. And I know that other students were bullied into taking the test but revolted in their own way by simply not answering the questions or making up random answers.

Then, of course, there was the boycott by the Poly students. I suspect that these are not the only students who are tired and simply done with this type of testing. The call to action here is to end this testing, not to revamp staffing and procedures so that students perform better on PARCC. Stop wasting valuable class time on this and actually allow teachers to do their jobs: teach. Robyne Lyles, Baltimore Was PARCC sabotaged? I am writing to provide some additional information regarding The Sun's coverage of statewide exams results shock leaders," Oct.

28) as well as the related editorial, "A sobering truth." Perhaps The Sun should follow up with an investigation into how teachers actively encouraged their students to underperform on these tests. Back in March when the tests were administered, my lOth-grader came home with the news that "these tests don't matter" and they "won't be used to decide whether you graduate." When I asked how he knew this, he replied that several of his teachers made the remarks in class. He added that he and his friends were planning to respond with intentionally wrong answers to the multiple-choice portions and gibberish when a written response was required. I suspect that many other students across the region made the logical conclusion to put minimal effort into an exam that had absolutely no impact on their academic progress. The articles today reflect the results of what I assume must have been a cynical plan by teachers to have their students underperform.

The next step in this plan will be demands for more "resources" in the form of higher teacher pay. The final act will come when voila student performance increases dramatically on the exams after high school graduation becomes dependent upon their score. I have had enough of school testing. Going forward I will request information on why specific tests are being administered. If tests are not essential for students to graduate, I will remove my children from school when these tests are administered.

I encourage other parents to do the same. Our children are losing valuable instructional time and spending mind-numbing hours completing these exams. It is almost as if testing is used to punish children because their parents have dared to ask that schools be held accountable for students actually learning. A.J. Williams, Ellicott City Look at parents, not just teachers I am a former Baltimore City Public School teacher, and after reading your editorial sobering truth," Oct 28), I too came to a sobering truth: Without constant parental involvement in their children's education, children will fail.

I only saw three parents participate out of a caseload of 17. That is simply abysmal and unacceptable. It's time to stop scape-goating teachers and to place the blame where it belongs. David A Samuel Charles Street needs an elevated walkway Along Charles Street in front of John Hopkins University's Milton Eisenhower Library are signs stating "Be A Road Scholar." The situation there for both pedestrians and drivers is still a dangerous mess without regard to scholarship celebrates a Charles St. that is safer for all users," Oct.

28). Johns Hopkins should erect elevated walkways for pedestrians to cross Charles Street safely and for drivers not to have to be on extra alert for all those who ignore the pedestrian crossing signals. To Johns Hopkins, I say the following: "Be An Elevated Walkway Scholar." Henry H. Emurian, Baltimore Baltimore's power couple Our view: Mosbys' marriage shouldn't be the only issue in the mayor's race a Mayor Mosby would, say, jack up the state's attorney's salary (former Mayor Martin O'Malley already did that, and not because he liked the occupant of the office at the time) or stand in the way of efforts to prosecute cases of police misconduct (that speeding the deployment of body cameras is near the top of Mr. Mosby's agenda would suggest otherwise).

Rather, the question is likely to turn less on an analysis of where and how the Mosbys' duties might conflict but on whether voters want to concentrate that much power in one family's hands. Two years ago, when Ms. Mosby was first running for office, critics saw her as trading on the name of her politician husband. Now the positions have reversed; Ms. Mosby's indictment of the six officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest made her a national celebrity.

In July, Mr. Mosby canceled a fundraiser in Philadelphia after organizers promoted the event using Ms. Mosby's image and the pitch to support "this political power couple that has been recently catapulted onto a national stage." But the association of the two is a double-edged sword. After all, the public perception of Ms. Mosby could change drastically between now and the April primary, depending on how well her office handles the officers' trials.

Mr. Mosby is the first well-known Democrat to enter the primary who has not run for mayor before, and as such, he is pitching himself as a candidate of new ideas on education, law enforcement, poverty, homelessness and government transparency. He faces experienced opponents in former mayor Sheila Dixon, Sen. Catherine Pugh and Councilman Carl Stokes, along with lesser known candidates, and others may still enter the race. With Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's decision to take herself out of the contest, the potential exists for a debate on the big issues that confront the city, and Mr.

Mosby deserves the chance to make his case. ity Councilman Nick Mosby's candidacy for mayor may mark the first time an actual marriage raised questions of potential conflicts of interest between a local executive and the state's attorney, but it wouldn't be the first time a political marriage did. Some are questioning whether Mr. Mosby's marriage to State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby would upset the separation of powers between the two offices if he is elected when it comes to questions like setting the budget for the prosecutor's office or investigating potential wrongdoing in City Hall. Theoretically, that could be a concern, but it's not a novel one.

Many in Baltimore County had similar questions in 2006, when then-County Executive James T. Smith Jr. faced only token opposition for re-election and chose to dump a huge portion of his campaign coffers some $435,000 into the campaign of Scott Shellenberger for state's attorney. Mr. Shellenberger won a tight race and has been in office ever since.

Mr. Smith's largesse gave Mr. Shellenberger's opponent something to complain about in their 2010 rematch but seems not to have affected the running of the state's attorney's office one way or the other. (It did, thankfully, lead to changes in state law designed to limit huge transfers of campaign funds in the future.) We expect Mr. Mosby's opponents in the mayor's race to raise the potential for conflicts of interest, and we don't dismiss it as a concern.

Mr. Mosby has been asked about it repeatedly since his campaign announcement on Saturday, as he should be. But we don't think it should or will automatically disqualify Mr. Mosby from the voters' consideration. Baltimore has too many real and present problems to let a theoretical one predominate.

That said, his relationship is almost certain to be on the minds of the voters. It's not necessarily that they will be concerned that Talk to us THE BALTIMORE SUN The Baltimore Sun welcomes comments from RICHARD J. DANIELS Interim Publisher readers on subjects of local and national relevance by email, by Twitter or on our Web site, baltimoresun.com. The Sun reserves the right to edit and publish them in the newspaper or on the Web site. Online E-mail us Twitter Our address baltimoresun.comtalk talkbackbaltimoresun.com twitter.combaltimoresun The Baltimore Sun, P.O.

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