Maryland
Maryland’s Correctional Training Commission, separate from the police commission, sets standards for correctional officers in State and local facilities and for parole and probation agents. Since 2023 the State has created an independent Correctional Ombudsman, required yearly reporting on in-custody homicide investigations and notice of deaths to legislators, ordered body-worn camera regulations for correctional officers, added parole and probation members to the Commission, and limited immigration enforcement by correctional facility staff.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Corrections Ledger
At a glance
- Certifying body
- Correctional Training Commission (CTC), in the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS). It sets minimum qualifications and certifies correctional officers of State, county, and municipal correctional units, parole and probation agents, and Department of Juvenile Services employees (Correctional Services (CS) §§ 8-201, 8-203, 8-208, 8-209). The Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission, covered on the Maryland Officer Ledger page, does not certify correctional officers.
- Statute
- CS Title 8, Subtitle 2 (§§ 8-201 to 8-212), Correctional Training Commission; regulations at COMAR 12.10.01. Facility standards: CS §§ 8-101 to 8-114 (Maryland Commission on Correctional Standards). Restrictive housing reporting: CS §§ 9-614, 9-614.1. Pregnant incarcerated individuals: CS § 9-601.
- Minimum standards
- No one may receive a probationary or permanent appointment as a correctional officer, supervisor, or administrator without meeting CTC minimum qualifications; a probationary appointment may last no more than 1 year to allow training (CS § 8-209). By regulation: age 18 or older; U.S. citizen or resident alien; a high school diploma or GED (a bachelor’s degree for classification counselors and parole and probation agents); a background investigation with State and FBI fingerprint checks (CS § 8-209.1); medical and mental health examinations; an interview; and drug screening. Disqualifiers include felony convictions for listed violent, weapon, and sexual offenses, two or more felonies, any conviction with incarceration within 10 years of release or end of supervision, a misdemeanor with jail time within 5 years, and unlawful cannabis use within 12 months or other listed drugs within 3 years before hire (COMAR 12.10.01.04, .20, .22).
- Basic training
- Commission-approved entrance-level minimums: 160 hours for a correctional officer or classification counselor, 88 for institutional support staff, 204 for a parole and probation agent, 90 for a drinking driver monitor, 160 for a resident advisor or case management specialist, and 120 for juvenile services support staff. Firearms and field training hours do not count toward these minimums. Training is given at CTC-certified State, regional, county, and municipal academies (COMAR 12.10.01.09).
- In-service training
- Agency heads must ensure that each mandated employee at or below first-line supervisor completes at least 18 hours of Commission-approved in-service training by December 31 each year, reported to the CTC by January 31 (COMAR 12.10.01.16). Employees authorized to carry a firearm must complete annual firearms training and qualification. By statute, the curriculum includes entrance-level and annual training in electronic control devices for officers issued one (CS § 8-208(a)(5)(i)). Certification lapses if annual training standards are not met, and the officer may not perform the duties until it is restored; a hearing is available to show no fault (COMAR 12.10.01.17).
- Decertification
- No CTC power to revoke a correctional officer’s certification for misconduct was found in CS §§ 8-201 to 8-212 or in the COMAR 12.10.01 text reviewed. Certification lapses for failure to meet annual training or renewal requirements, and applicants are barred by the disqualifying-conviction and substance-use rules (COMAR 12.10.01.06). Whether another revocation route exists in the regulations was not confirmed. No public decertification list for correctional officers was found.
- Jail standards
- With the advice of the 12-member Maryland Commission on Correctional Standards, the Secretary of DPSCS adopts minimum mandatory standards (including security and control, safety, food, housing and sanitation, rights, and classification) that apply to all State and local correctional facilities, and approved standards (including personnel, training, special management, and rules and discipline) that apply to State facilities and may be adopted by local ones. Enforcement is by inspection and compliance procedures (CS §§ 8-101 to 8-114).
- Probation and parole officers
- Parole and probation agents of the DPSCS Division of Parole and Probation fall within the CS § 8-201 definition of correctional officer and are CTC mandated employees: a bachelor’s degree, 204-hour entrance-level training, and the 18-hour annual in-service rule (CS § 8-201; COMAR 12.10.01.04, .09, .16). Since October 1, 2025, the Division’s Director and one Division employee sit on the CTC (entry below).
- Restrictive housing
- No general statutory limit on adult restrictive housing; bills to limit it failed in 2023, 2025, and 2026. Restrictive housing means a placement the person did not request in a locked room or cell for about 22 or more hours a day, including administrative and disciplinary segregation. Every correctional unit must report yearly to the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy on placements by age, race, gender, classification, and basis; people with serious mental illness; pregnant people; average and median stays; deaths and self-harm; direct releases to the community; and policy changes. Minors may be placed in restrictive housing only on clear and convincing evidence of an immediate and substantial risk, with daily health checks and normal access to calls, visits, food, showers, and care (CS §§ 9-614, 9-614.1). Facilities must have a written policy on restrictive housing or involuntary medical isolation during pregnancy and 8 weeks postpartum (CS § 9-601).
- Corrections use of force
- No physical restraint during labor or delivery except as the treating medical professional determines. A person known to be pregnant or in postpartum recovery may be restrained only on an individualized, recorded determination by the managing official, a designee, or the sheriff that it is needed for safety and security, and then only with the least restrictive restraint, never waist or leg restraints. Restraints must come off immediately if the treating health professional asks (CS § 9-601). No other corrections-specific statutory use-of-force standard was found. The CTC curriculum must include electronic control device training (CS § 8-208(a)(5)(i)), and since October 1, 2025 the CTC must regulate body-worn cameras for correctional officers (CS § 8-211).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Correctional officers eligible for the police and probation agent loan repayment and scholarship programs
Correctional officers become eligible for the Maryland Loan Assistance Repayment Program for Police Officers and Probation Agents and the Maryland Police Officers and Probation Agents Scholarship Program (Education Article §§ 18-3701, 18-3702, 18-3801 to 18-3804, 18-3807).
For corrections staff: Correctional officers can now apply for the State’s police and probation agent loan repayment and scholarship programs.
Community Trust Act: limits on immigration enforcement by correctional facility staff
Employees and agents of State and local correctional facilities may not ask about or investigate a person’s citizenship, immigration status, or place of birth; routine booking questions and entries into the National Crime Information Center are allowed. Without a valid judicial warrant (or a court order, for notification), staff may not detain or prolong detention at the request of federal immigration authorities, notify them that a person is in custody, or transfer a person to them. Staff also may not detain a person to investigate immigration status or on suspicion of a civil immigration violation, and facilities may not coerce, intimidate, or threaten anyone over actual or perceived immigration status. Documents issued by the federal Departments of Homeland Security or Justice are not judicial warrants. Local correctional facilities include the Baltimore City Detention Center and Central Booking. State correctional facilities must give federal authorities written notice within 48 hours before releasing a person with an active immigration detainer; that notice subsection excludes the Baltimore City Detention Center and Central Booking. The Attorney General or an injured person may sue for injunctive relief. Some bars do not apply to a covered convicted individual (a person convicted of a State felony, a sex-offender-registration offense, an offense with a State-prison sentence, or a qualifying out-of-state offense). In the enrolled text that exception reaches at least the inquiry, notification, and transfer bars; struck and added text cannot be told apart in the extracted print, so its exact scope should be confirmed against the codified section, which was not yet posted.
For corrections staff: Do not hold, report, or hand over a person to immigration authorities without a judicial warrant (or a court order, for notification), unless an exception applies.
Body-worn cameras for correctional officers: Commission regulations and unit policies
By January 1, 2026, the Correctional Training Commission must adopt regulations on the training, issuance, and use of body-worn cameras by correctional officers. They must cover testing, what to do if a camera fails during a shift, when recording is mandatory, prohibited, or discretionary, consent, ending a recording, notice, access and confidentiality, secure storage, review, retention, release, privacy protections, and officers who regularly deal with the public outside. Each correctional unit must keep a written body-worn camera policy consistent with the regulations. A local correctional facility may not be required to adopt body-worn cameras, but if it does, it must have such a policy. Recording oral communications with a body-worn camera is lawful for a correctional officer who is in uniform or displaying a badge, is a party to the communication, is making reasonable efforts to conform to the § 8-211 standards, and gives notice as soon as practicable unless that is unsafe, impractical, or impossible. The rest of the act concerns workplace safety for public employees.
For corrections staff: If your facility uses body-worn cameras, follow its written policy, including when recording is required and how to give notice.
Parole and probation members added to the Correctional Training Commission
The Commission gains two members: the Director of the Division of Parole and Probation, and one Division employee recommended by the employees’ exclusive representative and appointed by the Governor. The employee member must attend personally rather than send a designee.
For corrections staff: Parole and probation agents now have a seat on the body that sets their training standards.
Commissioner of Correction must notify legislators and the county when an incarcerated person dies
“Whenever an incarcerated individual dies in a Division of Correction facility,” the Commissioner of Correction must notify listed people, including the State delegates and senator for the district where the facility is located and the county’s legislative body. DPSCS must adopt regulations.
For corrections staff: Report deaths up the chain quickly enough for the Commissioner to make the required notices.
State Police must publish yearly counts of in-custody homicide investigations and referrals
The Department of State Police already investigates any suspected homicide of a person in Division of Correction custody. It must now post on its website, and report to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 31 each year, the number of investigations completed and the number of cases referred for prosecution. The enacted bill dropped a proposed Deaths in Custody Oversight Board.
For corrections staff: In-custody homicide investigations and prosecution referrals are now counted publicly each year.
Baltimore City Detention Center authorization repealed; Youth Detention Center created
The Division of Pretrial Detention and Services now consists of the Pretrial Release Services Program, the centralized booking facility for Baltimore City, the Maryland Transition Center, the Chesapeake Detention Center, and the Youth Detention Center; the Baltimore City Detention Center is removed from the list. The Youth Detention Center is a pretrial facility for people under 18 charged as adults in Baltimore City, run by a facility administrator in place of a warden. The Division has the same custody and operating authority over all its facilities that the Division of Correction and the sheriffs have over theirs.
For corrections staff: Division staff now work under facility administrators at named facilities rather than under a Baltimore City Detention Center warden.
Independent Correctional Ombudsman created; reprisal protection for DPSCS staff who report to it
The act establishes an independent Office of the Correctional Ombudsman as a unit of State government, not within the Office of the Attorney General. The Office investigates, reviews, and assesses administrative acts of DPSCS and the Department of Juvenile Services, with subpoena power, confidential communications, and duties to refer matters for criminal charges or discipline. The Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit moves into the Office. Supervisors and appointing authorities may not take or refuse personnel action as a reprisal against a DPSCS employee who discloses information to the Ombudsman. The section numbers are as enacted; the current codified numbering was not confirmed.
For corrections staff: You may report problems to the Correctional Ombudsman and are protected from reprisal for doing so.
Correctional Training Commission: five regional members from local facilities
The Governor now appoints, with Senate consent, five correctional officers or officials from local correctional facilities instead of four, one from each of five regions: Capital, Central, Eastern Shore, Southern, and Western. The requirement that one of them be a Department of Juvenile Services employee or official is removed, and so is the Federal Bureau of Prisons representative. A fifth member’s term began July 1, 2024, and seats expiring in 2024 to 2026 are filled from the regions not yet represented.
For corrections staff: Each region of the State now has a local-facility member on the Commission.
Mental health wellness policies for correctional facilities
The Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission must develop mental health wellness policies to be put in place in law enforcement agencies and in State and local correctional facilities. The policies must promote safety and wellness at every level, build stress management techniques designed by law enforcement and correctional officers into training, establish confidential peer support programs, offer psychological programming, and track effectiveness. The Commission reports each January 1, starting in 2025. The act also creates the Public Safety Apprenticeship Program and a temporary workforce workgroup. The Officer Ledger page lists these chapters as not counted for police certification.
For corrections staff: Expect peer support and stress management programs developed under these State policies.
“Inmate” becomes “incarcerated individual” in the Correctional Services Article
The defined term “inmate” becomes “incarcerated individual,” and the code publishers, with the Department of Legislative Services, must correct cross-references and terminology.
For corrections staff: Statutes and regulations now use “incarcerated individual”; update forms and reports to match.
Enacted, not yet in force, pending, and bills that did not pass
No enacted corrections change awaiting its effective date was found. These bills were not enacted:
- Restrictive housing limits: the Maryland Mandela Act, HB 385 / SB 45 / SB 459 (2023); HB 647 / SB 702 (2025); HB 1154 / SB 908 (2026); and HB 310 / SB 268 (2026, people with developmental or intellectual disabilities).
- Correctional officer body-worn cameras, SB 1046 (2025, hearing only). Chapters 608 and 609 of 2025 separately enacted body-worn camera rules (entry above).
- Sexual activity by law enforcement officers, correctional employees, and court-ordered service providers, with penalties and a registry, HB 302 / SB 177 (2024).
- Minimum mandatory standards for correctional facilities and immigration detention facilities, HB 1018 / SB 985 (2026).
Sources: the General Assembly’s 2023 to 2026 bill lists.
Checked and unchanged
- CS §§ 8-201, 8-208, 8-209 (Commission duties and appointment rules), 8-103 to 8-114 (facility standards), 9-601 (pregnant incarcerated individuals), and 9-614, 9-614.1 (restrictive housing reporting): checked against the posted text; no 2023 to 2026 change found beyond the entries above.
- COMAR 12.10.01.04, .06, .09, .16, .17, .20, and .22: checked against the posted text. Sections .21B and .22C (drug screening and prior substance use) were amended effective September 2, 2024 (51:17 Md. R. 777); the Maryland Register text was not retrieved, so that change is not credited as an entry.
- Not counted: Chapter 101 of 2024 (SB 273, unmanned aircraft recording over or delivering contraband to correctional facilities; effective October 1, 2024) creates crimes for the public rather than duties for staff. Chapter 173 of 2026 (HB 1017) concerns approval of privately operated immigration detention facilities.
- Chapter 872 of 2026 still names the Baltimore City Detention Center, whose authorization Chapters 99 and 100 of 2024 repealed.
Bills in the legislature
Bills in the current session whose title concerns corrections officers, jails, probation and parole, and conditions of confinement, found automatically in LegiScan's copy of the legislature's records and refreshed daily (last on October 21, 2026). This list is not reviewed by an editor and is not a summary of the bills; each links to the legislature's own page, which controls. Bills that become law are added to the dated entries above once checked.
- Enacted
SB101: Higher Education - Loan Repayment and Scholarships for Correctional Officers
Last action May 26, 2026: Approved by the Governor - Chapter 679. 2026 Regular Session.
- Passed one chamber
HB310: Correctional Services - Restrictive Housing - Individuals With Developmental or Intellectual Disabilities
Last action March 19, 2026: Referred Judicial Proceedings. 2026 Regular Session.
- Introduced
SB268: Correctional Services – Restrictive Housing – Individuals With Developmental or Intellectual Disabilities
Last action January 20, 2026: Hearing 2/04 at 11:00 a.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
- Introduced
SB296: Juveniles - Detention and Confinement - Limitations on Juvenile Contact With Incarcerated Adults
Last action January 22, 2026: Hearing 2/04 at 11:00 a.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
- Introduced
HB389: Juveniles - Detention and Confinement - Limitations on Juvenile Contact With Incarcerated Adults
Last action January 22, 2026: Hearing 2/05 at 1:00 p.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
- Enacted
SB285: Higher Education - Scholarships for Correctional Officers
Last action May 26, 2026: Approved by the Governor - Chapter 681. 2026 Regular Session.
- Enacted
HB852: Higher Education - Scholarships for Correctional Officers
Last action May 26, 2026: Approved by the Governor - Chapter 680. 2026 Regular Session.
- Passed one chamber
HB921: Juvenile Law - Confinement and Restrictive Housing - Limitations
Last action March 25, 2026: Hearing 4/01 at 1:00 p.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
- Introduced
SB908: Correctional Services - Restrictive Housing
Last action February 12, 2026: Hearing 2/25 at 1:00 p.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
- Introduced
HB1154: Correctional Services - Restrictive Housing
Last action February 16, 2026: Hearing 2/26 at 1:00 p.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
- Introduced
HB1505: Higher Education - Loan Repayment and Scholarships for Correctional Officers
Last action March 11, 2026: Hearing 3/11 at 1:35 p.m.. 2026 Regular Session.
The law, section by section
Every section of the statutes and rules this page relies on that could be read from an official source, 55 in all, each linked to the official text. Headings are copied from the official tables of contents, checked October 21, 2026.
Maryland Code, Correctional Services Article, Title 8, Subtitles 1 and 2 (Maryland Commission on Correctional Standards; Correctional Training Commission) and selected sections of Title 9, Subtitle 6Statute · 32 sections
Official text current through Maryland General Assembly statute text (enactments excluded), read 2026-10-21; the site shows no currency date. The Maryland General Assembly site publishes no section headings (catchlines) or subtitle names for the Code, so "heading" is null. Section list from the site's own section index (api/Laws/GetSections); every section text was opened and none is marked repealed. The index runs Subtitle 1 to 8-117 (there is no 8-104) and Subtitle 2 to 8-211 (there is no 8-212), so the ranges differ slightly from the page's "8-101 to 8-114" and "8-201 to 8-212". Title 9, Subtitle 6 is a partial list: only the sections the page cites. Md. Code, Corr. Servs. §§ 8-101 to 8-117, 8-201 to 8-211, 9-601, 9-614, 9-614.1, official text
Title 8, Subtitle 1
Title 8, Subtitle 2
Title 9, Subtitle 6 (sections 9-601, 9-614 and 9-614.1 only)
Code of Maryland Regulations, Title 12, Subtitle 10, Chapter 01: Correctional Training Commission, General RegulationsRules · 23 sections
Official text current through Library of Maryland Regulations: text "current as of October 12, 2026" (regs.maryland.gov home page, read 2026-10-21). Regulation list and headings from the chapter page of the Library of Maryland Regulations, which is produced from Division of State Documents data and states that only the Division's own copy is official. COMAR 12.10.01, official text
Chapter 01 General Regulations
- 12.10.01.01 Definitions.
- 12.10.01.02 Processing and Reporting Employment Status.
- 12.10.01.03 Provisional Appointment.
- 12.10.01.04 Selection Standards for Appointment to a Mandated Position and Documentation Requirements.
- 12.10.01.05 Background Investigation and Criminal History Record Checks.
- 12.10.01.06 Certification of a Mandated Employee.
- 12.10.01.07 Recertification Requirements.
- 12.10.01.08 Standards for Recertification.
- 12.10.01.09 Minimum Standards for Mandated Employee Entrance-Level Training.
- 12.10.01.10 Commission Mandated Employee Entrance-Level Training Performance Objectives.
- 12.10.01.11 Successful Completion of Commission-Approved Mandated Employee Entrance-Level Training.
- 12.10.01.12 Alternate Entrance-Level Training Requirements.
- 12.10.01.13 Minimum Standards for Attending an Academy Providing Commission-Approved Mandated Employee Entrance-Level Training.
- 12.10.01.14 Commission Certification Requirements for an Academy Providing Commission-Approved Mandated Employee Training.
- 12.10.01.15 Voluntary Attendance — Commission-Approved Mandated Employee Entrance-Level Training.
- 12.10.01.16 Mandated Employee In-Service Training and Firearms Training and Qualification.
- 12.10.01.17 Failure to Complete Commission-Required Mandated Employee In-Service Training and Firearms Training and Qualification.
- 12.10.01.18 Minimum Training Standards — Mandated Employee Supervisors and Administrators.
- 12.10.01.19 Procedures for Requesting a Waiver.
- 12.10.01.20 Disqualifying Criminal Convictions for Correctional Officers.
- 12.10.01.21 Drug Screening Procedures.
- 12.10.01.22 Prior Substance Abuse by Applicants for Certification.
- 12.10.01.23 Field Training.
The minimum mandatory standards for correctional facilities adopted under Corr. Servs. § 8-103 are not cited by number on the page and are not listed.
USCLI's source monitor re-reads the 28 official sources cited on this page around the clock; 3 answered unchanged at their latest check. The oldest of those checks was on October 21, 2026.
Last updated October 21, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Maryland corrections law: Corrections Ledger,” uscli.org/corrections-tracker/maryland (last updated October 21, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.