The fundamental concept of our prison system is rehabilitation and
not retribution. We penalize people for violation of the laws of society
to preserve order and not to chastise the individual. It is in the best
interest not only of the individual but of society as a whole that the
convicted wrong-doer be restored to full citizenship as soon as it is
possible.
The basic philosophy on which this institution was founded is that
there are problems in the daily lives of human beings which are common
to all of us and which affect our welfare. For the duration of his sen-
tence, the man who is imprisoned has most of these problems taken care
of by the institutional staff. He is not confronted with the decisions and
the choices that the free citizen must make in his daily living. The
program which is carried out in this pre-release center aims to re-
introduce the prisoner to the problems which will confront him when he
is fully released from the correctional environment. In the effort to aid
the prisoner in making this difficult transition from imprisonment to a
free society, professional and lay personnel will be used in individual
and group counseling. It is our hope that the program will reduce the
present number of inmates who are unable to adjust to the free society
on the outside, who commit new crimes and who become repeaters in
the State's correctional system. As citizens of Maryland, interested in
good government, we are pleased that the Department of Correction has
taken this forward step to rehabilitate the transgressors of the laws of
our State.
It is altogether appropriate that we name this building for an eminent
penologist, Harold Eugene Donnell, who spent most of his life in correc-
tional work and who for twenty-seven years was engaged in penological
work in Maryland, as Superintendent of the Maryland Training School
for Boys in Loch Raven and as Superintendent of Prisons. Harold
Donnell was a recognized authority in the field of penology and con-
tributed much to the development of the excellent correctional system
that we now have in Maryland. This new institution, the pre-release
center of the Maryland Correctional Institution, is but another step in
the program which he initiated to improve our prison system. And so,
it gives me great pleasure to dedicate this building to Harold Eugene
Donnell, in commemoration of the many years of loyal service he
devoted to the State of Maryland as Superintendent of Prisons for the
Department of Correction.
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