What’s the problem?
In 2025, about 75 people died in Maryland prisons, more than in each of the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021 and nearly three times the number a decade earlier, The deaths spanned all five “manners of death” in the State Chief Medical Examiner’s framework (accident, homicide, natural causes, suicide and undetermined), as the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) data show:
Press coverage has rightly focused on violent deaths. On July 22, 2026, the Baltimore Banner reported that since 2023 more incarcerated people have been killed in Maryland prisons than in the prisons of all neighboring states combined, counting 32 killed in state-run facilities. But homicides are only one part of the problem. From January 2009 through March 2023, about 885 people died in DPSCS custody, as William Haines documents in Facts about Deaths in Maryland Prisons, 2009–2023, which links to the underlying data.
The DPSCS data record each person’s race, gender, age and date of birth; facility; date and time of death; manner and cause of death; location of death (such as a hospital); date of admission; and length of stay. Further information is available in the DPSCS Restrictive Housing Report, FY 2024 (deaths and suicides by housing status) and in death-in-custody records for January 2, 2023, through January 28, 2025, available through Public Information Act request #61202.
Who investigates these deaths?
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner investigates deaths involving violence, suicide, casualty, sudden death of an apparently healthy or unattended person, or suspicious or unusual circumstances. The Office of the Correctional Ombudsman (OCO) must also report annually on deaths of people confined by or under the care of a correctional agency.
But the OCO’s 2025 Annual Report raised concerns about its access to information. Information about deaths was shared through DPSCS, and access to investigations was delayed until they were closed. The OCO believes its enabling legislation gives it full access to current as well as closed investigations, and it identified deaths in custody as an area needing further examination.
Body-worn cameras are not enough
DPSCS has begun rolling out body-worn cameras across its facilities. Cameras may help document incidents, provide evidence and deter violence and other prohibited conduct. But they cannot address medical neglect, suicide, overdose, inadequate monitoring, delayed emergency response or other failures of care. Deaths in custody also cost the state and taxpayers, particularly through litigation and settlements.
What’s the solution?
MAJR recommends either of the options below, preferably both.
- Strengthen independent oversight of deaths in custody. In 2024, Maryland considered creating a Deaths in Custody Oversight Board within the Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services. Under the original HB 565, the board would have reviewed every death of an incarcerated person, analyzed the circumstances and recommended ways to prevent future deaths and improve care. The version enacted as Chapter 956 is much narrower: it requires the Maryland State Police to investigate only suspected homicides and to report annually. That leaves a gap. Deaths from medical neglect, suicide, overdose, delayed emergency response, inadequate monitoring and unsafe conditions may never receive independent scrutiny.
- Strengthen the Correctional Ombudsman legislation. Maryland should ensure the OCO has timely, independent and comprehensive access to information on all deaths in custody, not only suspected homicides. Independent reviews should examine patterns and contributing factors across facilities and causes of death, identify preventable deaths, recommend corrective action and provide meaningful public accountability while protecting legitimate privacy interests.
The goal is simple: when someone dies in state custody, Maryland should know what happened, whether the death could have been prevented, and what must change to prevent another death.
