Maryland’s public safety and corrections chief is stepping down

Maryland’s embattled secretary of public safety and corrections is stepping down, according to four officials informed of the move who were not permitted to discuss it publicly.

Carolyn Scruggs, who was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore in 2023, informed her staff Wednesday evening that she was departing, two sources said. Scruggs is expected to remain in the Moore administration in a different role, a source said.

A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services could not immediately be reached for comment. Scruggs’ assistant said she was not in the office on Thursday.

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Scruggs is a 27-year veteran of the agency and became the first Black woman to lead it.

The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services incarcerates about 18,000 people in state prisons and a pretrial complex in Baltimore. The department also includes pretrial services, parole and probation.

The agency has about 9,200 employees and a $1.92 billion yearly budget. Scruggs earned $235,000 in 2025, according to state records.

She came under fire amid a surge in killings inside the state’s prison facilities, as well as mounting complaints from the corrections staff union over staffing and safety. Maryland had one of the highest rates of killings in state-run correctional facilities in the nation.

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 3 held a news conference in late June blasting the agency and state leadership.

The state earlier this year opened a “potential criminal conduct” investigation after a man was found dead in his cell on May 20 at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown. The man’s father said that his son was dead for hours or possibly days before the discovery.

There have been no charges filed or updates in either investigation.

During Scruggs’ tenure, parole and probation agent Davis Martinez was killed in 2024, allegedly by a sex offender he was checking on. The death led to reform legislation in Annapolis.

The department also has been under fire for the medical care provided in prisons by for-profit companies contracted by the state.

A 2024 audit found that incarcerated people were not always receiving intake medical exams as required, patient complaints were left unresolved for months and contractors weren’t meeting staffing standards. The state has since switched contractors.

Scruggs has said she made changes to senior leadership, reduced staff vacancies, stepped up efforts to keep drugs out of prisons and rolled out body cameras for its officers, among other measures.

This is a developing story.

Banner reporter Brenda Wintrode contributed to this article.