Maryland Man Awarded $6.4 Million For False Imprisonment, Police Misconduct by Michael Rigby On August 30, 2006, a jury in Prince George?s County, Maryland, awarded $6.4 million to a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for the brutal rape and murder of his wife. During trial the jury heard compelling evidence …
Still More Murder and Mayhem in Maryland by Michael Rigby "Lock them up and throw away the key." Like the rest of the nation, this overriding penal philosophy in Maryland has led to a criminal justice system that is defunct at every level. The state's adult prisons are "in crisis." …
Maryland Sentence Reduction Rule Violates Ex Post Facto Clause by The Maryland Court of Appeals has struck down an administrative regulation amending another regulation to deny previously authorized sentence reduction credits for certain categories of prisoners. In January of 2002, Quinton Demby, Jesse Baltimore, Kenneth Woodall, Daniel Falcone, and Earl …
Maryland Disciplinary Rules Violate APA by The Maryland Supreme Court invalidated prison disciplinary ?directives? because they were not adopted in conformity with the State Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Under the Maryland APA, all state agencies must follow certain procedures when adopting ?regulations? as defined by the APA. The APA excludes …
Problems Continue In Maryland Prisons and Jails by Michael Rigby A battle is raging in Maryland over how best to improve prison safety. Some advocate hiring more guards and medical personnel. Others want to expand prisoner rehabilitation services. Neither side seems to be considering the possibility that both are needed. …
CONMED Not Using Licensed Nurses In Maryland Jail by Attempts to get jail medical services on the cheap may have backfired for Marylands Queen Anne County. CONMED, a private jail medical services company, has a contract to provide medical services at the countys 80-bed jail and 11 other Maryland jails. …
Maryland ALJ Faults Arbitrary Transfer/Medical Order Violation by A Maryland Administration Law Judge (ALJ) held that the Maryland Division of Correction (MDOC) violated a Settlement Agreement and acted arbitrarily, capriciously and in violation of law by transferring a prisoner. The ALJ also found the refusal to provide ordered medical devices …
CSC Pays Public Defender Social Worker $125,000 for Rape in Juvenile Facility by A former social worker with the Baltimore public defenders office in Maryland, who said she was raped by a 15-year-old boy she was a visiting at the Charles H. Hickley, Jr. School settled a civil lawsuit on …
Petty Stone Cold Kickbacks KO Government Employees Nationwide by by Mark Wilson Stone Cold Chemicals, (SCC), sells cleaning products to government agencies, and it is really cleaning up. Company founder Thomas Stone admits to training his sales force to offer premiums (i.e., bribes and kickbacks) to government purchasing agents to …
Maryland's PHS Prison Health Care Under Fire, New System Implemented by by Michael Rigby A Maryland prison is no place to get sick. Virtually every facet of prisoner health care, which has been provided by Tennessee-based Prison Health Services (PHS) since 2000, is in disarray. Prisoners sometimes receive the wrong …
Overturned Conviction Nets Baltimore Man $1.4 Million by Maryland's Board of Public Works (BPW) awarded a Baltimore man $1.4 million for spending 27 years on a faulty murder conviction. In 1974, Michael Austin, then 25, was convicted for the murder of a grocery store security guard. Austin was not only …
Fired, Tattooed, Nude-Posing Guard Settles with Maryland DOC for $10,000 by by Matthew T. Clarke Maryland has agreed to pay an ex-guard who appeared nude on a website and in a tattoo magazine $10,000 to get her to drop her wrongful discharge claim after an administrative law judge sided with …
Maryland Prisons MisCalculate Half of All Prisoner Release Dates by by David M. Reutter Up to one half of all Maryland prisoners early release dates at two prisons were erroneous, concluded a report by the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits. The report declined to identify the two prisons it audited, …
Problems Mount In Maryland Prisons by by Michael Rigby Even as the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) reels amid mounting criticism over pervasive violence, inadequate medical care, overcrowding, understaffing, and other systemic deficiencies, new tremors continue to rattle the division. Eight guards accused of beating a …
Fatal Justice: The New Maryland by Michael Rigby It's a state already steeped in heritage--birthplace of The Star Spangled Banner, home to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, and site of the bloody Civil War battle at Antietam. But now Maryland is raising a new legacy: a system of dangerous …
Triple-Dipping Jail Psychiatrist Fired For Past Medicare Fraud Conviction by Dr. Kripa Kashyap, 62, a psychiatrist providing treatment to prisoners at the Harford County (Maryland) Detention Center in Bel Air was barred from treating any more prisoners after The Baltimore Sun newspaper revealed his past conviction for Medicare fraud. For …
Fourth Circuit Reinstates Federal Prisoner's FTCA Claim by In an unpublished decision involving a prisoner's lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that genuine issues of material fact precluded summary judgment of the prisoner's claim. Dwayne Manning, a federal prisoner, alleged …
Jury Awards Maryland Prison Guard $1.6 Million for Discrimination by Michael Rigby In July 2003, a federal jury in Maryland awarded a former prison guard $1.6 million for the discrimination and hostile work environment he endured while on the job at a Maryland prison. Mathen Chacko, a native of India, …
Excessive Heat Still Plagues Baltimore Women Detainees by Bob Williams Despite a 2002 federal district court Consent Order finding conditions at the Women's Detention Center of the Baltimore City Detention Center (WDC) unconstitutional due to excessive heat and despite an injunction issued to immediately remedy the problem, WDC women continue …
Maryland Detainee Chained to Pole Awarded Damages, but No Fees by The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed in part a jury award of damages against Maryland police officers who left an arrestee tied to a pole in a deserted parking lot. The court also affirmed denial of …
