ACLU Comment on Closure of Decaying and Dangerous Jail Building in Baltimore

NEW YORK – Maryland Governor Larry Hogan today announced that the state will close the Men’s Detention Center, a facility within the Baltimore city jail system whose infrastructure is crumbling and infested with vermin. In June, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Law Offices of Elizabeth Alexander, and the Public Justice Center filed a motion to reopen Duvall v. Hogan, a federal court case challenging unconstitutional conditions at the Men’s Detention Center and three other facilities that make up the city’s jail system.

David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, had this comment:

“We are relieved that Baltimore detainees will no longer be forced to live in the Men’s Detention Center, a building that should have been condemned decades ago. This critical step, though, will have no impact on the dangerous physical conditions and shockingly deficient medical and mental health care in the jail facilities that will remain open. Because of these conditions, detainees in the jail complex have suffered unnecessarily and endured permanent harm that could have been prevented. That is inhumane. The state of Maryland must provide safe housing and adequate health care to detainees.”

More information about Duvall v. Hogan is available here:

https://www.aclu.org/cases/duvall-v-hogan