Alcatrazwood Detention Center Ballot Initiative Launched
Montgomery County Republican Party Chair Reardon “Sully” Sullivan has formed a ballot issue committee to gather signatures for a new county detention center, Alcatrazwood, on the island in the middle of notorious Lake Needwood in Derwood. Robin Ficker co-chairs the committee.
Alcatrazwood would replace the county's Seven Locks Detention Center, which holds newly arrested individuals for up to 72 hours until they are released or transferred to the Clarksburg jail.
Reardon “Sully” Sullivan and Robin Ficker team up for another ballot initiative.
In a post on his Truth Social account Monday evening, Sullivan wrote that, “For too long, Montgomery County has been plagued by criminally bad drivers, skateboarders grinding down shopping center handrails, and serial sign code violators -- the dregs of society. If we were a more serious county, like Garrett, we would lock up these dangerous criminals and keep them far away from I-270 and Clyde's Tower Oaks."
“That is why, today,” Sullivan said, “I am launching a petition directing the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, together with Montgomery Parks, to build ALCATRAZWOOD, a substantially larger Montgomery County Detention Center on Lake Needwood Island to house the county’s most petty offenders and short-term inmates.”
Escaping Lake Needwood Island has long been considered impossible due to the lake's treacherously high levels of cyanobacteria, known for causing severe gastrointestinal distress. "If the alligators didn't get them first, they'd leave an unmaskable trail and quickly be back," Sullivan said of potential escapees.
The cyanobacteria and alligator infested Lake Needwood water makes Alcatrazwood escape-proof.
Ficker said Alcatrazwood won't cost Montgomery County taxpayers a penny. "Funding for Alcatrazwood will come from a 220-million-dollar Justice Department grant using pandemic-era relief money the Trump administration pulled back from Montgomery County last month," Ficker told The Montgonion.
Montgomery County residents who wish to sign the petition in support of Alcatrazwood may do so here.
