Maryland Manual 1996 1997 Dept of Public Safety & Correctional Services / 473

with murder or other crimes against persons faced the death penalty as did those charged with treason or
sedition Retribution was swift in colonial Maryland, a convicted person was either hanged or subjected
to whipping, branding, or other corporal punishment Public humiliation was considered a deterrent, so
the convicted criminal was not locked up—only debtors languished in jail One of the sheriff's earliest
duties was to take custody of prisoners Because few counties had a secure place of confinement for
prisoners, most persons awaiting trial were out on bail, bond, or personal recognizance, and a sheriff who
could not produce them for trial was penalized Beginning in 1674, every county was required to build
a jail (Chapter 16, Acts of 1674), and the Paper Currency Act of 1733 allotted funds for each county to
erect a prison (Chapter 6, Acts of 1733)

In response to an increase m such crimes as burglary, robbery and horse-stealing, a Court ofOyer and
Termmer and Gaol Delivery was created in 1793 for Baltimore County (Chapter 57, Acts of 1793) The
Court could sentence convicted men for up to seven years hard labor working on the public roads of
Baltimore County or building, repairing, or cleaning the streets or basin of Baltimore town Caretakers,
a place of confinement, coarse apparel, and food, consisting of bread, coarse meat, and water would be
provided by the Court Convicts could be compelled to work in irons and wear a distinctive badge Any
misconduct was punishable by close confinement, a diet of bread and water, and up to thirty-nine lashes
of the whip Convicted women also could be sentenced for up to seven years hard labor, however, their
labor was out of public view at such tasks as picking oakum, beating or hackling hemp or flax,
manufacturing wool, knitting, or sewing Women were not subject to whipping The most interesting
feature of the 1793 law was its statewide provision County courts and the General Court of the State
had the option of conveying their convicted criminals to the person or persons appointed to take care of
criminals in Baltimore County for the fee of five pounds current money The law also authorized counties
to keep their criminals at home, the men at hard labor on the county roads, the women in the county
workhouse Such laws were known as "wheelbarrow" laws

Development of State Prisons In the nineteenth century, debate focused on systems of penology
Penitentiaries were built in response to public outrage at the spectacle of convicts laboring on roads and
other public projects Their institutional function was to punish prisoners through solitary confinement
and, later, hard labor Prison labor began as a punitive measure, but by the end of the century was perceived
as rehabilitative, which justified any profit to the State

The Maryland Penitentiary, authorized in 1804 and opened in 1811, vacillated between the two
competing penal philosophies of the times, but was renowned for nearly always being profitable
(Resolution no 15, Acts of 1804) A legislative committee inspected the building under construction in
1807 and reported that the new penitentiary had depositories for raw materials and manufactured goods,
nine cells measuring roughly 8 by 16 feet, separate rooms for women, and a chapel The 1809 law, which
specified for what crimes and what terms persons were to be sentenced to confinement in the new
penitentiary, merely stipulated that convicts "shall be kept therein at hard labour, or in solitude," and
male and female prisoners kept separate (Chapter 138, Acts of 1809) Thus, at its inception, the Maryland
Penitentiary operated under neither the Philadelphia system of total isolation nor the Auburn system of
moral isolation with its discipline of silence by day and solitary confinement by night, enforced by the
whip Both systems, however, exerted some influence In 1829, the Directors of the Maryland Penitentiary
reported the completion of a new east wing designed for solitary confinement at night In 1837, the
Directors were required to remodel or rebuild the old west wing so that prison discipline based on the
Philadelphia plan could be extended to the women's department Further, "the directors shall pay
particular regard to the enforcement of the Philadelphia system, to the fullest extent of its admissibility,
in the new cells, so as to be able to report to the Governor annually, the effects thereof upon the convicts,
as a reformatory and punitive confinement, and also upon the financial and manufacturing operations of
the Penitentiary, for the purpose of affording a comparative estimate of the merits of the two great systems
of punishment nowm use in the United States" (Chapter 320, Acts of 1837) The President and Directors
of the Maryland Penitentiary noted in 1838, however, that "the experience of the past year has served to
test the efficacy of the Auburn system of prison discipline in our Penitentiary, to the introduction of which
the new workshops were expressly adapted " By 1841, the Auburn System was definitely in use

Prisoners in the Maryland Penitentiary were kept at hard labor most of the time, either confined in
their solitary cells (Philadelphia) or in a common but silent work area (Auburn) The 1809 law called for
either hard labor or solitude, whereas the 1837 law required the prisoner to work in his cell during solitary
confinement a period not less than one twentieth nor more than one half of the total sentence (Chapter
138, Acts of 1809, Chapter 320, Acts of 1837) The weaving of cotton and woolen goods was one of the
more successful manufactures undertaken, as it employed even the older and more feeble inmates In the
late 1830's, however, the market for such products was undercut by cheap machine made calicoes