The latest from Ben Conarck
Maryland jails and prisons can’t keep track of their pills. Now the DEA is cracking down.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration visited two state jails last year and performed “accountability audits” that uncovered violations of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Maryland wants to address racial disparities in its prison system. Will Trump interfere?
Despite Maryland’s progressive reputation, the disparities in its criminal justice system are among the worst in the country.
City Council pressures police, mayor for a plan to address open-air drug markets
Baltimore is shifting its approach to fighting a burgeoning illicit drug trade, and the City Council is pressing police and Mayor Brandon Scott for a plan.
City, DOJ agree: Police transports of detainees have improved since Freddie Gray
City attorneys and the U.S. Department of Justice are asking a judge to narrow the scope of the Baltimore Police Department’s federal oversight.
With deteriorating fences, Maryland’s aging prisons struggle to secure their perimeters
Maintaining Maryland’s prison fences is estimated to cost the state $34 million every two years for the next 30 years.
Maryland prisons are awash in handmade weapons. Contraband recoveries more than tripled.
The state corrections department recorded a discovery rate for weapons in its facilities at about 13 per 100 prisoners and detainees.
Potential Medicaid cuts loom over partnership linking incarcerated people with health care
People leaving Maryland prisons and state-run Baltimore jails often do so with complex medical needs, ranging from substance use disorder, to hypertension and diabetes.
Maryland inches toward reforming trans prisoner policies as it pays out legal settlements
Trans prisoners make up a fraction of Maryland’s incarcerated population, but nearly half of its settlement payouts last year. Efforts to reform policy have been slow.
Violent assaults are spiking in state prisons. Could body cameras be a solution?
Drugs? Staffing? Lack of air conditioning? Maryland corrections officials and union members differ on reasons behind surge in violence.
Workplace hazards for Maryland parole agents: Getting shot, stabbed, punched or strangled
State inspectors have cited the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services with health and safety violations after parole agent’s killing.
State prosecutors who investigate deaths at the hands of police were busier than ever last year
A specialized wing of the attorney general’s office launched 22 investigations and its first prosecution in 2024.
33-year-old man dies after apparent medical episode at Baltimore jail: ‘This is not fair’
Trayvon Ocain, 33, died in a facility that is under scrutiny for its health care system. His family wants answers.
Baltimore homicides and shootings fall to lowest levels since 2015
Baltimore Police say 201 people were killed in 2024, with more than 400 people shot and wounded.
Maryland must turn over contested Baltimore jail records, loses medical monitor fight
Maryland has spent nearly half a million dollars on a private law firm to try and exit a decades-old lawsuit. So far, it has little to show for it.
These doctors defended Alabama and Louisiana prisons. Maryland wants them in Baltimore.
The plaintiffs challenging Baltimore jail health care, led by the ACLU’s National Prison Project, have nominated three of their own selections to become medical monitor.
Baltimore’s original police oversight board is closing down. Its members were ‘blindsided.’
The impending closure of Baltimore’s original community-led police oversight board has raised new questions. It may also present new opportunities.
Maryland was supposed to build a center for incarcerated women. It went silent instead.
A law firm’s request for records about plans to build a center for incarcerated women has led to a year-and-a-half-long saga that recently culminated in a lawsuit.
Baltimore Police inch closer toward federal reform goals amid uncertain backdrop
The Baltimore Police Department’s achievements come amid an uncertain backdrop in the federal monitoring of local police departments.
This group was told to fix mass incarceration in Maryland. Here’s what they came up with.
Black Marylanders make up about 30% of the state’s population but more than 70% of the people incarcerated in state prisons, the most pronounced racial disparity of its kind in the country, and a dubious distinction that criminal justice reformers say exemplifies the state’s regressive policies around mass incarceration.
Here’s what a second Trump term could mean for policing in Baltimore
The U.S. Department of Justice is helping to transform the Baltimore Police Department. Will that continue under the second Donald Trump administration?