Baltimore County detainees may be ’employees’ who can earn minimum wage, appeals court rules
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Baltimore County jail detainees may be covered by state and federal labor laws, reversing a previous decision that said work program participants were not entitled to earn minimum wage.
A three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals sent the detainees’ lawsuit back to a lower court, finding that Baltimore County’s main purpose in sending prisoners to work at its recycling plant was saving money, not rehabilitation.
“Today’s decision is a historic precedent-setting decision which is not just a victory for these hardworking workers, but for all U.S. workers whose wages may be impacted by the use of inmate labor,” said Howard B. Hoffman, the lawyer representing the detainees in their class-action lawsuit.
A Baltimore County spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher ruled last June that county jail detainees who were detailed to the plant were not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law that governs overtime and minimum wage for most U.S. workers.
Michael A. Scott, an Essex man who was briefly detained at the Baltimore County Detention Center, was the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit. In his initial 2021 suit, he said he was paid a flat rate of $20 per day for working 10 hours per day, five days a week, at the facility, which is operated by the county Department of Public Works.
The county also contracted with a temporary staffing agency to place people there who were paid minimum wage and overtime to perform the same work as the work-release workers, according to Scott’s suit.
Scott worked at the plant from December 2019 to March 2020 while serving time for two misdemeanor theft and fourth-degree burglary charges. The county suspended the program in April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.