By Ruben Castaneda
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — After it failed to provide public records, the state corrections agency has agreed to pay more than $300,000 to a Baltimore civil rights firm representing the family of a man who died of dehydration in jail.
Lamont Mealy died July 5, 2023 while incarcerated at the state’s Western Correctional Institution; the state’s medical examiner found he died from dehydration. A witness letter alleges Mealy went without water for more than a week and guards taunted him over his thirst.
To investigate the circumstances around Mealy’s death, lawyers for his family filed a public records lawsuit seeking an array of documents, including video footage of the cellblock where Mealy was housed, as well as emails from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) employees.
However, DPSCS “knowingly and willfully failed to provide what was ordered by Judge [ Wendy S.] Epstein on March 2nd , 2026,” said Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge James L. Rhodes in a June court hearing.
Rhodes sanctioned DPSCS for failing to follow another judge’s previous order to provide documents about Mealy’s death to lawyers for his family.
A DPSCS spokesman said the department had no comment on the settlement.
According to Mealy family attorney Baltimore civil rights attorney Carey J. Hansel, DPSCS has a “longstanding pattern … denying access to records owed to people in their care.
“This settlement reflects the fact that the Court sanctioned the State twice for violations of the law and the Court’s orders,” Hansel said. “If this lawless behavior doesn’t stop, we’ll be back.”
A third lawsuit alleging wrongful death Mealy’s family brought against the agency is still pending.
Funds awarded without discussion
During a meeting last week of the Maryland Board of Public Works, DPSCS requested approval to pay a settlement of $313,985.94 for “all claims, including claims for attorneys’ fees,” to resolve civil actions filed against the department by Mealy’s family.
The board approved DPSCS’s request for the funds without discussion.
Rhodes ordered the agency to provide the material the Mealy family’s attorneys sought within seven days, to pay Mealy’s lawyers $1,000 in damages, and a separate amount for attorney fees to be determined by the judge.
Nearly $300,000 of the settlement is for attorneys’ fees. A small amount — $14,500 — is to pay court-ordered penalties.
Settlement doesn’t affect wrongful death suit
The attorneys’ fees settlement does not resolve a wrongful death lawsuit Mealy’s family has filed against DPSCS in Baltimore City Circuit Court . That lawsuit, which is still pending, alleges that correctional officers cut off water to Lamont Mealy’s cell more than a week before his death, mocked his thirst, and failed to take him to a scheduled medical appointment the day he died, the suit said.
The family’s suit names DPSCS, Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs and more than two dozen current and former agency employees. The suit seeks economic and punitive damages in excess of $75,000.
Scruggs slammed the DPSCS investigation into Mealy’s death and asked the state attorney general to conduct an independent investigation into the inmate’s death after the state medical examiner ruled the manner of death accidental, according to records The Baltimore Sun reviewed.
Scruggs told the official who investigated Mealy’s death that his death “appears to be a failure that will likely result in significant costs to the state or a major lawsuit,” court records show.
In an Oct. 17, 2025, email to then-executive director of the intelligence/investigative division of DPSCS, Errol Etting, who spearheaded the agency’s investigation, Scruggs detailed what she said were deficiencies in the agency’s actions.
Among them were:
- Prison staff failed to conduct rounds as required by institutional policy.
- A “major discrepancy” exists between what the prison video shows regarding rounds and what the logbook reported.
- The video does not show that correctional officers looked into the cell to determine Mealy’s condition.
- The logbook for the housing tire couldn’t be located.
- The investigation concluded that a mental health assessment of Mealy was reasonable, but medical and custody staff did not ensure it happened.
- The correctional officer on the tier “apparently expressed concerns to his supervisor about [Mealy’s] condition, but the supervisor did not take any follow-up action.”
- An inmate housed near Mealy wrote in a March 2024 letter to Gov. Wes Moore that correctional officers turned off the water in Mealy’s cell eight days before his death. “So far, there is no evidence to confirm this, but it is likely the individual will be allowed to testify about what they claim to have heard.” The inmate, Danny Hoskins, also wrote that correctional officers taunted Mealy about not having water.
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