Maryland House of Correction

The Maryland House of Correction was the second prison established by the state. Authorized by the Laws of 1874, ch. 233, it opened in January 1879. A medium-security facility, it was designed to house convicts sentenced to less than three years' imprisonment. The sentence restriction was lowered to one year by the Laws of 1884, ch. 513, but was restored to three years by the Laws of 1910, ch. 739. Annual reports from 1900 to 1903, however, reveal that some inmates of the House of Correction were serving sentences ranging to ten years. In addition to those imprisoned for criminal offenses, the initiating legislation permitted Justices of the Peace to commit "any vagrant, habitually disorderly person (not insane) or habitual drunkard" the the House of Correction for up to six months.

The House of Correction was designed to hold both male and female prisoners. In 1921, all the female inmates of the Maryland Penitentiary were transferred to the House of Correction, and it then served as the state's primary prison for females. In 1940, all 83 female inmates at the House of Correction were transferred to the new Women's Prison, which opened in October of that year.

State law mandated that all convicts be employed at jobs best suited to the individual and "most profitable to the institution." Many male inmates were employed by commercial contractors making bottles, brooms, and clothing. Others worked on the prison farm. Female inmates made clothing and worked in the laundry. As a result of penal reform measures, however, the commercial use of contractual convict labor was reduced following World War I. Thereafter, some prisoners worked under Maryland's State Use System (e.g., on road crews, as printers of state documents, and making license plates). Beginning in the 1920s, the institution reported large profits from its farming and canning operations. Although many prisoners were still employed by commercial contractors for several years after the State Use System began in 1922, all contract labor at the House of Correction was eliminated by 1937.

Since its inception, the House of Correction has been administered by several boards and/or agencies. Until 1916 it functioned as an independent agency governed by a Board of Managers (Laws of 1874, ch. 233). As a result of progressive reform, the Board of Managers was abolished and the State Board of Prison Control assumed authority over the House of Correction (Laws of 1916, ch. 556). Management changed again just six years later when, under the State Government Reorganization Act, the House of Correction fell under the purview of the Board of Welfare (Laws of 1922, ch. 29, art. vii). In 1939, the Board of Correction within the newly created Department of Correction assumed supervision of the state penal system (Laws of 1939, ch. 69). Beginning in 1953, the Superintendent of Prisons administered the Department (Laws of 1953, ch. 758), but was replaced by the Commissioner of Correction nine years later (Laws of 1962, ch. 123). The Department of Correction was renamed the Department of Correctional Services in 1968 (Laws of 1968, ch. 137). Two years later it was subsumed under the new Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. At that time, the Department of Correctional Services was reorganized as the Division of Correction, which maintains its authority over the Maryland House of Correction (Laws of 1970, ch. 401).