Talk about turning the tables on the crooks.

State auditors have found that corrections employees in Baltimore have been regularly taking money from prisoners for their own use. The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reports today on a hearing in Annapolis where this practice was discussed:

Released last week, the audit found serious deficiencies in two accounts — a fund that contains inmate money, and another fund of public money used to finance small expenditures. The review found that the five Baltimore sites in the state prison system gave some employees easy access to blank checks and the signature plates needed to authorize checks drawn on the public account with no supervisory oversight; and perhaps as a result of those gaps, could not account for tens of thousands of dollars in missing funds.

The report also disclosed that some prison employees were drawing money from the inmate account to pay salary advances. While such advances, intended for newly hired employees awaiting their first biweekly paychecks, are allowed, prison workers were mixing the funds from the inmate and public accounts. There was no documentation to justify why some veteran employees were drawing advances.