Fewer sick, injured taken to Central Booking

With fewer people arrested in Baltimore over the last year, the number of detainees turned away by the Baltimore City Detention Center for wounds or illnesses has also fallen.

The issue drew attention last April when prosecutors accused Baltimore police officers of ignoring Freddie Gray’s pleas for medical attention.

Gray, 25, died after suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody. Six officers have been charged in his arrest and death. All have pleaded not guilty; one has been acquitted, and another is now being tried.

The Baltimore Sun reported last year that police ignored or were oblivious to thousands of illnesses or injuries in the three years before Gray’s arrest.

An average of 74 people per month were refused intake at the state-run detention

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center in Baltimore because they had suffered face and body trauma, limb fractures, hypertension or other conditions, or were extremely intoxicated. A small number had been shocked with a Taser or shot. One person’s jaw was wired shut.

When the detention center refuses a detainee, police are responsible for taking him or her to a hospital.

Since Gray’s death, the number refused after an assessment at the detention center dropped to an average of about 46 a month.

At least one law enforcement observer said police are surely being more cautious and calling for medical attention before taking people to be booked. But the drop tracks a parallel decline in arrests and bookings.

The number of people the detention center refused to accept from Baltimore police and other law enforcement agencies still represents about 2 percent of people taken for booking.

Charles Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant who now consults on use-offorce cases, said the data perhaps reflects more conservative behavior down the line: Police get medical help for more detainees before taking them to the detention center, but the center also refuses more.

“I’d be surprised if any really serious injuries caused by officers or witnessed were not getting to the hospital very quickly,” Key said. “A large percentage of people are going to claim they are injured — called jailitis — so maybe corrections officials are becoming more restrictive, too?” Baltimore Sun reporters Doug Donovan and Adam Marton contributed to this article. — Meredith Cohn