‘Inhumane, unsafe’: People detained in Baltimore jail were without running water for days, public defenders say

A Baltimore detention facility was without running water and functioning toilets for days this week, according to the Office of the Public Defender, which alleges the conditions were unconstitutional.

While the water was out at the Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center in Baltimore, people were unable to clean themselves and were given “minimal” bottles of water, the office said Friday. In some instances, people were forced to “remain in cells with unflushed excrement for days,” a news release said.

“At times, people were brought to portable toilets while remaining handcuffed so they could not wipe or wash themselves; at other times, they were provided with garbage bags to use as toilets in their cells,” the Office of the Public Defender said in a news release.

Eleven petitions were filed by public defenders on Friday seeking the release of people incarcerated at the facility while awaiting trial. In one provided by the Office of the Public Defender, attorneys describe “deplorable conditions” and argue that the jail is violating detainees’ rights to due process and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

“When the state holds someone in custody, the conditions must comply with basic human rights standards — and functional plumbing is among the most basic of those obligations,” the state’s public defender, Natasha M. Dartigue, said in the news release. “Depriving people of rudimentary health and hygiene measures is inhumane, unsafe, and well beyond what our society should tolerate.”

Spokespeople for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which runs the facility, did not immediately respond to an email on Friday evening.

The Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center is an intake facility that opened in 1981 on East Madison Street near the Jones Falls Expressway. The District Public Defender for Baltimore City, Marguerite E. Lanaux, said more than 420 people are incarcerated there, calling the conditions “beyond unconscionable.”

In one client’s emergency petition, public defenders described that last weekend the pipe that carries human waste out of the facility was clogged and overflowed, causing flooding. That same day, the toilets stopped working, it said. From Sunday to Tuesday, the toilets wouldn’t flush, causing detainees to “live in cells with unflushed excrement for days.”

The people incarcerated in the facility were given four to six small bottles of water on Monday, but were not given any more, despite relying on sink water for tasks like cleaning, drinking and cooking.

“Perhaps most deplorable, while the toilets were not functioning, there was a period where prisoners were being brought down to another floor to use portable bathrooms, but could only do so while handcuffed, which physically prevented them properly using the bathroom and exercising any form of hygiene afterwards,” the filing said.

The news release added that flooding issues persisted into Thursday afternoon. One assistant public defender observed trashcans overflowing with leaking water.

This story will be updated.