U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer demanded yesterday that the District of Columbia clean up its rotting Forest Haven institution for the mentally retarded in Anne Arundel County before moving ahead with a $25 million plan to build a jail near the site.

The Democratic congressman also said the district's mayor-elect, Anthony Williams, should meet with Maryland City-area residents to discuss how the district can make its institutions safer and less of a nuisance.

Hoyer has some influence over what happens on the roughly 250-acre Forest Haven site north of Route 198 near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway because the district leases the land from the federal government.

Next door to Forest Haven is the maximum-security, 150-bed Oak Hill Youth Detention Facility, also on federal land.

"I am very concerned about any plans by the District of Columbia to build a prison on the Forest Haven/Oak Hill site," Hoyer said. "The district has a poor record of being a good neighbor in Anne Arundel County, especially for the homeowners who live near the facilities."

Hoyer was successful is helping close Cedar Knoll, the district's nearby youth detention center, in 1993 after repeated escapes.

On the Forest Haven site is a largely abandoned 21-building complex that the U.S. Justice Department closed in 1991 because staff members were abusing residents.

The Sun reported yesterday that neighbors and a Fire Department official want the district to demolish the buildings and pull out of the area because the Forest Haven ruins have become a haven for drug abusers, arsonists and vandals.

But the district has no plans to leave. In the city's fiscal 2000 budget is $25 million to build a detention center for people younger than age 21 awaiting trial, said Madelyn Andrews, public information officer for the district's Department of Human Services.

Location undecided

The new detention center might be near Oak Hill, Andrews said, but the exact location has not been decided. She said it probably will not replace the Forest Haven buildings.

The district is under court order to improve conditions at Oak Hill, and a new detention center nearby could help alleviate problems there, she said.

Andrews said that guards at Oak Hill try to keep trespassers and vandals out of the abandoned Forest Haven buildings.

"We have learned a valuable lesson," Andrews said. "We hope that in the future, when we close a building, we will continue to provide maintenance and security."

Williams could not be reached for comment.

Two newly elected Anne Arundel County Council members said yesterday that the district should not build a detention center in the county.

Daniel E. Klosterman Jr. said the district should allow the vacant federal land to be used for something more productive, such as a high-tech business park.

'A dumping ground?'

"Why does Anne Arundel County keep getting picked on for these facilities?" asked Klosterman, a Democrat from the 2nd District who will be sworn in Monday. "What are we, a dumping ground? They don't want the prisons in their own back yard. We've already got our share of prisons and jails."

Republican Cliff R. Roop, who will represent the county's 5th District, said he's worried that the District of Columbia doesn't manage its institutions in Maryland carefully.

"It's federal land, and unfortunately sometimes they do what they want to do on it," said Roop. "I just hope they try to get some input from our residents."

Incoming Democratic Councilman Bill D. Burlison, who will represent the 4th District, which includes Forest Haven, could not be reached yesterday.

Pub Date: 12/04/98