State tells Baltimore jail monitor to stop talking to doctors, ratchets up legal defense

The Maryland Office of the Attorney General has ratcheted up a more defiant legal strategy in its defense of a still-dysfunctional Baltimore jail health care system, hiring an outside law firm and targeting the medical monitor who has been gauging the state’s compliance, or lack thereof, with the terms of its settlement. In recent months, the Maryland AG hired attorney William Lunsford of the law firm Butler Snow LLP. Lunsford and his associates have gained notoriety in Alabama and other states for defending state prisons against a variety of allegations, and at a steep cost.