CHAPTER 346
(House Bill 232)

AN ACT concerning

Crimes - Unlawful Contact on Prison Employees by Inmates

FOR the purpose of making it a misdemeanor for an inmate to maliciously cause or
attempt to cause certain employees of certain correctional facilities to come into
contact with blood, seminal fluid, urine, or feces, or with blood under certain
circumstances; specifying a certain maximum fine and maximum term of
imprisonment; adding employees of sheriff's offices to those employees to which
certain offenses by inmates apply; providing certain sentencing procedures; and
generally relating to offenses by inmates against employees of correctional
facilities, jails, detention centers, and sheriff's offices.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
Article 27 - Crimes and Punishments
Section 12A-6

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1996 Replacement Volume and 1998 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:

Article 27 - Crimes and Punishments

12A-6.

(a) Every inmate convicted of assault in any degree on another inmate or on
an employee of the Division of Correction, the Patuxent Institution, the Baltimore
City Detention Center, or any county jail [or], detention center, OR SHERIFF'S
OFFICE, regardless of employment capacity, shall be sentenced under this section.

(b) (1) AN INMATE WHO MALICIOUSLY CAUSES OR ATTEMPTS MAY NOT
MALICIOUSLY CAUSE OR ATTEMPT TO CAUSE ANY EMPLOYEE LISTED IN
SUBSECTION (A) OF THIS SECTION TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH BLOOD,:

(I) SEMINAL FLUID, URINE, OR FECES; OR

(II) BLOOD, PROVIDED THAT THE CONTACT WITH THE BLOOD IS
NOT THE RESULT OF PHYSICAL INJURY RESULTING FROM PHYSICAL BODY CONTACT
BETWEEN THE INMATE AND THE EMPLOYEE.

(2) AN INMATE WHO VIOLATES PARAGRAPH (1) OF THIS SUBSECTION IS
GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR AND ON CONVICTION IS SUBJECT TO A FINE OF NOT
MORE THAN $1,000 $2,500 OR IMPRISONMENT FOR NOT MORE THAN 10 YEARS OR
BOTH.