The ACLU of Maryland is pausing response to Legal Help Requests beginning October 1, 2024. For alternate resources, please see the referral list at the bottom of this page.
We provide legal help to prevent constitutional and civil liberties violations. We do this by filing lawsuits, educating the public, and changing state statutes, regulations, and policies. Our Legal Team focuses on lawsuits. However, our legal help process is paused from October 1, 2024, through February 28, 2025.
We will not respond to requests received by phone, online form, or mail during this period. Our staff is pausing to assess our capacity. Please see the below information regarding other possible resources. We look forward to reconnecting in 2025.
You may find a general guide to legal issues and resources at:
You may find private lawyer referrals at:
To find lawyers for Criminal Matters:
For policing issues, please review our Police Accountability Self Advocacy Toolkit on this webpage.
For prison-related matters (state prison & Baltimore City jails only), have the person inside contact the Prisoners, Rights Information System of Maryland (PRISM) in writing to PO Box 929, Chestertown, MD 21601.
See also a blank patient data release form and our webpage, “What Happened to My Loved One?”
From 2015 to 2022, 123 people in Maryland were killed by the police. This number is too great and doesn’t even count the people, families, and whole communities who survive so much physical and mental harm from needless – often racist – run-ins with police. This institutional failure is made worse by flawed “accountability” structures designed to protect police and bypass justice.
The ACLU of Maryland Police Accountability Self-Advocacy toolkit describes ways a person may use existing, though inadequate, accountability structures. We also hope this self-kit will highlight the flaws of the system and encourage you to change it.
When someone you love passes away inside a Maryland prison or jail, it can feel impossible to find out what happened. While the process for seeking death-related information can differ depending on the facility, this guide hopes to shed some light on where to start.
The Maryland Parole Partnership (MPP) is the result of the lifelong work of numerous people serving life sentences who organized behind prison walls, the family members who supported them, and the advocates they recruited to join them. Our goal is to help facilitate meaningful parole consideration for individuals serving parole eligible life and long-term prison sentences that have been incarcerated for at least 25 years, have demonstrated their maturity and rehabilitation, and are ready to contribute to our communities.
