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

By 1842, the Penitentiary, hit hard by a general commercial depression and the depreciation of its
textile production, had accumulated a deficit Its directors appointed a committee to visit five penitentiaries
in the northern states and investigate their manufacturing departments The C ommittee on Prison
Manufactures (1842) concluded first, solvency of the Penitentiary required maintaining a large, produc
ti\e prison population, which had been dwindling since an 1836 law provided tor Negroes to be sold out
of state for a second offense, second, debate continued over the merits of manufacturing on the State
account plan or hiring the convicts out to contractors, and third, working men forced to compete with
prison labor might cripple prison industries

Maryland Penitentiary Penal Commission After the Civil War, Maryland used a contract system of
prison labor and, between 1880 and 1912, the Penitentiary returned its greatest profits to the State
treasury Rumors of corporal punishment and unsanitary conditions, however, led an investigative
commission in 1913 to find that profits had been at the expense of the prisoners Recommendations of
the Maryland Penitentiary Penal Commission were enacted gradually into law and form the basis for the
present correctional system The Commission called for the State Use and State Account Systems to
replace contract labor, a central board to govern Stare prisons, a Board of Pardons and Paroles, a prison
farm, and a separate institution for women offenders The Commission wanted local )ails used only tor
pretnal detention, not for final sentence, and sought State control of juvenile reformatories, passage of
an Indeterminate Sentence Act, and classification of prisoners, with incentives for good behavior

The Maryland Penitentiary Penal Commission also furthered educational programs for prisoners The
Penitentiary library began in 1844 with books donated by Dorothea Dix among others Religious
instruction had been provided from an early date by outside clergy, the Prisoners' Aid Society, and other
groups In 1905, an institutional chaplain was hired who read prisoner mail and supervised the library
By 1907, prisoners were encouraged to take approved correspondence courses, and in 1913, after the
Commission's investigation, night schools for illiterates were started using prisoners as teachers

State Board of Prison Control By 1916, the State Board of Prison Control began to oversee the
Maryland Penitentiary and House of Correction, and to phase out contract labor after the Penal System
Commission of 1914 advocated changes similar to those recommended by the Maryland Penitentiary
Penal Commission, (Chapter 556, Acts of 1916) That same year prison labor came full cycle with passage
of a law authorizing the use of prisoners to work on the public roads, bridges, and highways, the spectacle
of which back in 1804 had led to the building of the Penitentiary (Chapter 211, Acts of 1916) The
contract labor system continued until 1935 when federal legislation outlawed the interstate sale of goods
produced in prison, forcing Maryland to establish State Use Industries (Chapter 213, Acts of 1937)

The Maryland Penitentiary is by far the oldest State correctional institution Not until 1874 was
the Maryland House of Correction authorized Originally sentences to the House of Correction were
for not less than three months nor more than three years Vagrants, the habitually disorderly, and
habitually drunk were subject to commitment Inmates were to be kept at useful employment, not
hard labor, and good behavior could lead to remission of sentence (Chapter 233, Acts of 1874) Due
to shorter sentences, the House of Correction also had difficulties keeping prisoners working
Prisoners worked on the institution's farm, were hired out to neighboring farmers, and as early as
1915, were working on the roads ofAnne Arundel and Howard counties, as well as manufacturing
under the contract labor system

In 1922, the General Assembly made the State rather than the individual counties and Baltimore City
responsible for carrying out the death penalty The stated intention was to centralize capital punishment
at the Maryland Penitentiary where convicted felons under sentence of death would be hanged This
removed execution from the county or city )ails as the law then provided, thus relieving the counties from
the mobs that frequented hangings (Chapter 465, Acts of 1922) The law applied to offenses committed
on or after January I, 1923 It further directed the Warden of the Maryland Penitentiary to provide and
maintain a permanent death chamber within the confines of the Maryland Penitentiary, where the
condemned was to be held in solitary confinement

The twentieth century saw a flurry of prison construction the Maryland State Penal Farm (later to
become Maryland Correctional Institution at Hagerstown) in 1931, Women's Prison of the State of
Maryland at Jessup in 1939, Patuxent Institution at Jessup in 1951, Maryland Correctional Training
Center at Hagerstown in 1966, Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup in 1981, Roxbury Correc
tional Institution at Hagerstown m 1983, Eastern Correctional Institution at Westover in 1987, Maryland
Correctional Adjustment Center at Baltimore in 1989, and a new prison that will open in 1996 near
Cnsaptown, south of Cumberland in Allegany County The State assumed additional responsibilities in
1991 when it took control of the Baltimore City Jail and reorganized it as the Baltimore City Detention
Center under the Division ofPrerrial Detention and Services