MAY JUNG LLP Files Class Action Lawsuit For Juvenile Hall Abuse In Maryland

WASHINGTON, DC (Jan. 11, 2024) — May Jungᴸᴸᴾ, a leading civil rights law firm, announced today that it has filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Maryland on behalf of individuals who allege they were sexually abused while detained as children at Maryland Department of Juvenile Services facilities.

The class action lawsuit alleges that the State of Maryland is responsible for creating, enabling, promoting, and facilitating decades of sexual abuse of detained children by staff members within the juvenile detention system. At various times, Maryland’s juvenile detention system has included at least 13 different facilities operated or managed by the State.

“Maryland’s juvenile facilities house some of the State’s most vulnerable children. The law requires the State to humanely care for these children, provide them with the necessary services, and, above all, ensure that they have a safe, abuse-free environment. For decades, the State has failed in these most basic tenets by permitting and enabling its staff to sexually abuse the very children they were supposed to protect,” said Jessica H. Meeder, Senior Counsel at May Jungᴸᴸᴾ. “We want to ensure that the State is forced to make vital, decades-overdue changes to its juvenile system so that no child in a juvenile facility is ever sexually abused again,” explained LaRuby May, Partner at May Jungᴸᴸᴾ.

For decades, Maryland’s juvenile facilities have detained a disproportionate number of Black and Brown children, perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline that damages these communities. The State’s alleged pattern of child abuse has also disproportionately impacted these communities of color.

Maryland’s Child Victims Act, which went into effect on October 1, 2023, removed the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits brought by child survivors of sexual abuse. The law has allowed child sexual abuse survivors to seek justice through the courts when they otherwise would have been unable to do so.

Individuals interested in learning more about the class action lawsuit are invited to contact May Jungᴸᴸᴾ at 1-833-MAY-JUNG (1-833-629-5864).

For more information about May Jungᴸᴸᴾ, go to www.mayjung.com.