A Baltimore jury has ordered the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to pay $1.05 million to a formerly incarcerated man who says he was thrown from the back of a state-operated van that had no seats or seatbelts, breaking his hand, hitting his head on the pavement, and being knocked unconscious. Thiwite Dechamps, now 47, was being transported with other inmates to a work site in 2023 when the van's back door swung open during a sharp right turn, sending him falling into the street.
The jury's $1.05 million verdict, awarded as noneconomic damages, followed a lawsuit Dechamps filed against the department in Baltimore City Circuit Court in December 2024, according to Maryland Daily Record. His attorney, Allen Honick of Furman Honick Law, said the state transported people in a cargo van without seats or seatbelts, and that Dechamps had been sitting on milk crates in the back during the ride.
How the Fall Unfolded
Dechamps hit his head on the pavement, was knocked unconscious, and broke his hand in the fall, and he also sustained other injuries, according to the same account. Honick said the lack of seats and seatbelts, and the failure to secure the van's back door, were the real issue at hand, not how the vehicle was being driven. He argued the negligence had already occurred before the van ever left, since inmates were placed in an unsecured cargo area to begin with.
Honick also pushed back on any suggestion that Dechamps might have caused his own fall, noting that Dechamps was on the doorstep of being released at the time and would not have risked his freedom by trying to escape a moving van. Honick said the verdict affirms that people in state custody are entitled to basic safety and dignity.
Alleged Delay in Medical Care
Per his complaint, Dechamps also alleged that the department failed to provide timely follow-up care after his fall, and that he sustained a permanent loss of mobility as a result. According to a December 2024 report by Maryland Daily Record, Dechamps' complaint claimed correctional employees placed him back inside the van while he was still unconscious and bleeding, and that his medical evaluation was delayed for four days, at which point doctors diagnosed blunt trauma and internal bleeding. Dechamps had been serving time on a 2015 armed robbery sentence and was near release when the transport incident occurred, per the same complaint.
Why the $1.05 Million Won't Reach Dechamps
Dechamps will not receive the full jury award. Under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, the state's liability for a single incident is statutorily capped at $400,000, a limit courts must apply no matter how large a jury's verdict runs, according to the People's Law Library. Lawmakers doubled that cap from $200,000 to $400,000 effective October 1, 2015.
The Supreme Court of Maryland reinforced how strictly that ceiling is enforced in a June ruling this year in State v. Young, holding that damages are capped at $400,000 per single incident unless a jury explicitly finds multiple, non-concurrent negligent acts, according to Justia Law. In that case, plaintiff Michael Young had won $4 million at trial after two prison attacks, only to see the state's high court reduce his recovery to the same $400,000 limit.
The State's Defense at Trial
DPSCS attorney Drew Gilbert argued at trial that Dechamps had not proven his injuries resulted from state negligence, the outlet reported. The state's filings asserted that Dechamps failed to allege the van driver was speeding and did not specify which exact safety rules the department had violated, contending his complaint lacked the required legal specificity. A judge had already denied the state's motion to dismiss the case before it reached trial. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide one, and the Maryland Office of the Attorney General declined to comment.
A Long History of Unbelted Transports in Baltimore
Unsecured prisoner transport has a long history in Baltimore courts. The 2005 death of Dondi Johnson led to a $7.4 million jury award for his family that was later reduced to $200,000 under the state cap then in place, and the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, who suffered fatal spinal injuries while handcuffed in a police van, prompted Baltimore City Police to mandate seatbelts in its own transport vehicles, according to CBC News.
A 2015 survey found that transport vans operated by major surrounding county police agencies, including Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford and Howard counties, were not equipped with seatbelts for detainees, according to filings before the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Law enforcement officials have said the lack of seatbelts is often tied to officer safety concerns about getting too close to uncooperative or handcuffed detainees inside small van enclosures.
Staffing Shortages Strain State Prisons
By mid-2023, around the time of Dechamps' injury, DPSCS faced an estimated system-wide shortage of 3,400 correctional officers across state facilities, straining daily inmate monitoring and transport operations, according to WCBC Radio. The correctional officers' union, AFSCME Council 3, has repeatedly lobbied state lawmakers to address the shortfall.
Separately, a December 2024 audit by the Maryland General Assembly's Office of Legislative Audits found widespread lapses in how the department monitored private inmate healthcare contractors, resulting in hundreds of missed evaluations, per the same publication that first reported on Dechamps' lawsuit. State lawmakers publicly questioned DPSCS leadership after the audit's release.
Plaintiffs suing a Maryland state agency also face strict procedural hurdles regardless of a claim's merits. Under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, prospective plaintiffs must serve written notice to the Maryland State Treasurer within one year of an injury, after which the state has six months to review the claim administratively before a lawsuit can proceed, according to Mudd, Mudd & Fitzgerald, P.A. Missing that one-year window can permanently bar recovery, regardless of how strong the underlying claim might be.
