Maryland Penitentiary

The Maryland Penitentiary was the first prison established by the state and the second of its kind within the United States. The maximum security facility was authorized by the Laws of 1804, res. 15, and opened in 1811. An 1881 penitentiary publication reports that prior to its establishment, criminals were housed in county jails or workhouses and "made to labor upon the public roads." Significantly, when the legislature rewrote the Maryland Criminal Code in 1809, the new law designated a maximum time of "confinement in the penitentiary" for the conviction of most criminal offenses (Laws of 1809, ch. 138).

The prison was designed to house both male and female convicts. However, following the transfer of all female inmates to the Maryland House of Correction in 1921, the penitentiary held only one or two female prisoners in subsequent years until 1947. After that, it held only male convicts. Prisoners convicted in federal courts were also incarcerated in the Maryland Penitentiary (Laws of 1819, ch. 55). The practice of holding federal prisoners continued until 1922.

...