Lawsuit says Baltimore jail held thousands after release orders

A federal lawsuit says Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Center turned court-ordered freedom into dead time, detaining more than 14,000 people after judges had already ordered them released. In the complaint, Jamien Palmer says he was kept for 22 hours after a judge signed his release, a delay the lawsuit says cost people jobs, child care, housing and other basic parts of life.

Filed April 13, 2022 in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Palmer v. State of Maryland et al. alleges the jail held people an average of more than 14 hours after release orders. The filing says 17% were held more than 20 hours, almost 10% were held more than 24 hours, and about 3% were held more than 36 hours and up to five days after a court had already ordered them out.

The complaint also says the harm was massive in the aggregate. In a random sample of 100 arrests from 2019, it alleges total overincarceration of 1,483.08 hours, or roughly two months of freedom lost. Plaintiffs are seeking hourly compensation for class members, and attorney Cary J. Hansel has said a reasonable verdict could top $10 million.

The filing places the burden on Baltimore’s jail system and the state agencies that run it, including the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the Division of Pretrial Detention & Services. It also says Black Baltimoreans bore the brunt of the alleged practice: while Baltimore is about 63% African American, the complaint says African Americans made up about 95% of those overdetained after release orders.

The case has remained active in federal court, with a class-certification hearing scheduled for November 20, 2025 in Baltimore. A federal judge also ruled on October 21, 2024 that Maryland had to keep complying with a 2016 settlement over Baltimore jail conditions, marking the third extension of the agreement because the state still had not come into compliance.

The broader system has stayed under scrutiny as the lawsuit moved forward. Even after the case was filed, Maryland public safety officials were still allegedly keeping people past court-ordered release dates at the Baltimore Booking and Intake Center, according to later accounts from defense lawyers and a detainee, showing that the problem did not end with the lawsuit.