Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of child custody issues are arising among parents who share custody of their minor children. The most looming is whether parents who are considered front-line workers pose a health risk to their children. ...

Tagged with: editorial advisory board maryland courts covid-19

Citing the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, a prisoners’ rights group is seeking a federal court order to release medically vulnerable detainees from the Prince George’s County jail to protect them from contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus. ...

Tagged with: civil rights corps COVID-19 cruel and unusual mary lou mcdonough maryland courts covid-19 prisoner's rights

Maryland courts will remain closed except for emergency matters though June 5 in an effort to stanch the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s top judge stated in an administrative order issued late Tuesday. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera’s ...

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Maryland’s top jurist has called for the state’s judges to meet with prosecutors and defense counsel to identify inmates at heightened risk of dying from the COVID-19 virus and to determine which individuals should be released from prison, where communicable ...

Tagged with: Bloomberg School of Public Health COVID-19 maryland courts covid-19 prisons

In an effort to protect the state’s juvenile jail population from the COVID-19 virus, Maryland’s top jurist told the state’s judges Monday to release those youngsters in detention or commitment whose release would not pose a danger to themselves or others and who have a home or other facility to go to serve their sentence, among other factors.

Tagged with: COVID-19 juvenile justice maryland courts covid-19

Maryland’s second-highest court has postponed its pandemic-compelled remote oral arguments for Friday due to concerns about the security of Zoom, the free online videoconferencing site the state judiciary had used until Thursday. The Court of Special Appeals stated in an ...

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Current and former prosecutors, police and youth justice agents from outside Maryland came out this week in support of the state public defender’s call for judges to release all detained and incarcerated juveniles who do not pose an immediate threat ...

Tagged with: COVID-19 juvenile justice maryland courts covid-19 paul b. dewolfe

The Maryland public defender’s office seeks too much in its call for judges to release all detained and incarcerated juveniles who do not pose an immediate threat of seriously harming someone, state agencies responsible for the youngsters’ safety told Maryland’s ...

Tagged with: juvenile justice maryland courts covid-19

Citing the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, a coalition of civil rights groups has urged Maryland’s top court to order judges and state agencies to quickly reduce prison and jail populations to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 ...

Tagged with: ACLU Eighth Amendment inmates maryland courts covid-19

The Maryland appellate courts’ pandemic-compelled move to oral arguments by videoconference rather than in person could alter the subtle but often crucial dynamics of these sessions in which attorneys try to convince the judges to see the law their way. ...

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