Corruption Charges Dropped Against Maryland Sheriff, Former Virginia Sheriff Headed to Trial by On November 12, 2024, federal prosecutors dropped their criminal case against Sheriff Chuck Jenkins of Maryland’s Frederick County, for allegedly obtaining weapons fraudulently from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Meanwhile, on the other …
Maryland and Wexford Health Pay $200,000 to Prisoner Denied Care and Partially Blinded by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney As PLN readers know, medical care in America’s prisons and jails is horrific even by the low standard courts have set to determine what is constitutionally sufficient. In yet another case, …
Public Defender Files Habeas Petitions for Detainees at “Horrific” Baltimore Lockup by On May 17, 2024, the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD) filed 11 habeas petitions for detainees awaiting trial at the state’s Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center in Baltimore after they reported raw sewage overflowing from unflushable …
Maryland Extends Contract with YesCare Despite Bankruptcy of Predecessor Corizon Health by For-profit prison healthcare contractor Corizon Health had a sordid reputation even before it attempted a legal maneuver known as the “Texas Two-Step,” using that state’s laws to put its valuable assets in a new company called YesCare and …
News in Brief by Alabama: Mobile Metro Jail guard Robert Aaron Small was fired and arrested for assault on June 27, 2024, one day after he allegedly used excessive force against an unnamed detainee. WKRG in Mobile said that the guard had worked at the lockup since 2019. Mobile County …
Maryland Pardons 175,000 Marijuana Misdemeanor Convictions by Maryland prisoners with misdemeanor marijuana convictions had them erased as of June 18, 2024, when Gov. Wes Moore (D) issued pardons for every state misdemeanor conviction for possession of pot or related paraphernalia. The pardons will not release any prisoners; the misdemeanor convictions …
Arrested for Stealing Snacks, Baltimore Diabetic Dies in Jail by Louis Maurice Mason, a 67-­year-­old struggling with diabetes and a four-­decade cocaine addiction, died on March 8, 2024, in Baltimore’s jail system. Despite his deteriorating health, a judge had set his bail unaffordably high, effectively signing his death warrant. Mason’s …
Transgender Maryland Prisoner’s Suit Accuses Guard of Shower Rape by On October 2, 2023, transgender Maryland prisoner Dmitry Pronin, known now as Leyleen Lillith Aquino, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, alleging that she was raped in a state prison shower …
Maryland Prisoner Prevails in Challenge to Denial of Public Records Requests by As PLN has reported, prison and jail employees have been identified in racist or extremist groups. [See: PLN, Feb. 2022, p.40.] The problem was manifested in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, when participating …
$56.7 Million Awarded to “Harlem Park Three,” Exonerated of Baltimore Murder After 36 Years in Prison by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On September 29, 2023, Maryland’s Baltimore Board of Estimates approved a $48 million settlement for former state prisoners Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, Jr. and Ransom Watkins, …
Maryland County Wins Fight to Let Bureaucrats Make Pretrial Release Decisions by David Reutter by David M. Reutter There’s something rotten with bail decisions in Prince George’s County, but as of March 29, 2024, the federal court for the District of Maryland isn’t going to do anything about it. …
Texas Bankruptcy Court Rejects Proposed Settlement of Prisoner Claims Against Corizon Health by On April 11, 2024, a Texas bankruptcy court rejected a proposed $54 million settlement that would have paid just a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars owed to prisoners who won judgments or secured settlement …
Fourth Circuit Reinstates HRDC’s RICO Claim Against Securus and ViaPath by On June 4, 2023, a request for a rehearing en banc before the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit was denied in a suit accusing prison telecom providers Securus Technologies and Global Tel*Link (GTL)—now known as …
Maryland Compensates Exonerated Prisoner Over $340,000 by On September 20, 2023, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved over $340,000 in compensation to Demetrius Smith, who spent years unjustly incarcerated—more than a year of that time after his innocence had been established. Gov. Wes Moore (D), who chairs the three-­member …
Appleby-El v. Wexford Health Sources, MD, Settlement, Failure to Provide Medical Care, 2024 SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND RELEASE This Settlement Agreement is made this 27th day of March, by and between Nathaniel Appleby-El (“Plaintiff”), on the one hand, and Dayena Corcoran and Frank B. Bishop, Jr. (hereinafter “Defendants”), on the other …
$2.9 Million Paid by Maryland to Exonerated Former Prisoner by A former Maryland prisoner’s January 2023 exoneration marked the end of a long and painful chapter in a 1981 double murder he was unjustly convicted of. On July 5, 2023, state authorities awarded John Huffington, 61, nearly $2.9 million for …
Gilliam v. Dept of Public Safety and Correctional Services, MD, Order Granting and Denying Part Prelim Injunction, Transgender, 2023 Case 1:23-cv-01047-MJM Document 75 Filed 12/04/23 Page 1 of 2 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND CHELSEA GILLIAM, et al., * Plaintiffs * v. Civil Action …
After SCOTUS Resolves Circuit Split, Maryland Guard Loses Appeal to Prisoner’s $700,000 Verdict by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On May 25, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held that a post-trial motion is required only to preserve findings of fact for appellate review—not a purely …
News in Brief by Alabama: Three jail guards in the Yellowhammer State were hit with drug smuggling charges in August 2023 and another the month after. WAFF in Huntsville reported that Morgan County Jail guard Bobby Simmons, 19, was arrested on August 3, 2023, when he was charged with promoting …
Duvall v. Moore, MD, Declaration of Oscar H. Jerkins, Conditions of Confinement, 2023 Case 1:94-cv-02541-ELH Document 821-1 Filed 11/08/23 Page 1 of 17 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND JEROME DUVALL, et al. * * Plaintiffs, v. * WES MOORE, et al. * * Defendants. …
