Court Holds Maryland Accountable for Dire Conditions in Baltimore Jails

BALTIMORE – The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ruled today that the State of Maryland is obligated to make major changes to Baltimore jails to comply with a 2016 settlement agreement reached in a class-action suit on behalf of detainees at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center. This marks the third time that the court has had to extend the agreement because of the state’s persistent failure to come into compliance with the agreement and make necessary improvements to its facilities. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox found that the state’s “progress toward compliance has been unacceptably slow.”

“Today’s decision is a victory for accountability,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “The extension of the settlement agreement means that the state must abide by the unfulfilled promises they made to improve the dire conditions in their facilities. We are hopeful that our clients will finally see the benefits of the settlement and be treated with the dignity and humanity they deserve.”

Since the 2016 settlement, the ACLU and court-appointed independent mental health and medical experts have conducted periodic inspections of the jail and monitored the State’s compliance with the agreement. Reports from the experts have consistently shown that the state has failed to implement changes agreed to in the settlement, and the ACLU has returned to court several times to enforce compliance.

“People incarcerated in Baltimore jails continue to live in troubling conditions,” said Jennifer Wedekind, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Reports from the court-appointed experts and the state’s own records reveal that patients with serious health care needs may not be able to access the care they need, and that some people with mental illness are forced to live in isolation, with almost no time outside of their cells. We will continue to hold state officials accountable until they follow through on their commitments.”

“A few days in BCBIC can literally be life-threatening from lack of adequate health care alone,” said Debra Gardner, legal director of the Public Justice Center, a Baltimore non-profit legal advocacy organization that also represents the class of plaintiffs. “The situation is intolerable. We applaud the Court for making clear the state cannot just walk away. Now the state needs to focus its resources on health care and not on fighting folks in dire need of it.”

The detainees are represented by the ACLU, the Public Justice Center, and Locke Lord.