MARYLAND — Maryland taxpayers will pay nearly $314,000 after the state corrections department failed to turn over public records about the death of a prisoner who died of dehydration — conduct a judge found was knowing and willful.
The settlement ends two public-records lawsuits brought by the family of Lamont Mealy, who died July 5, 2023, at Western Correctional Institution. His family’s lawyers sought video, emails and other records as they investigated how Mealy could die of dehydration while in state custody.
The Baltimore Sun reported in June that Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs had sharply criticized her own agency’s investigation into Mealy’s death, identifying failures by prison staff and investigators and asking the state attorney general to conduct an independent investigation…