Annapolis, Md. – Governor Wes Moore announced the plans on Monday to close the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup until June 30, 2026, citing decades of sub -investment, which has left the facility with medium security in Anne Arundel County beyond repairs. The move will save Maryland taxpayers each year in the operating costs of 21 million US dollars and at the same time allow the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to redistribute 709 detained persons and 308 employees into other state institutions.
The facility in the 7803 House of Correction Road in Jessup was opened in 1981 as an attachment to the now forced Maryland House of Correction. An assessment of the Ministry for General Services identified the basis of the foundation through water penetration, closed residential units due to drainage errors and outdated sanitary, electrical and roof system systems. Repairs would exceed around 200 million US dollars and years over the years, officials said. Instead, the state will issue 1.5 million US dollars for closure and winter to the website after completion and evaluate future purposes such as potential renovation or demolition.
“Mci-J has relaxed its lifespan for a long time and we refused to continue the cans down the street,” said Moore. “Our plan to close this facility will save the taxpayer money, burden our hardworking and committed prison officers and to comply with the state's commitment to meet every maryard with humanity, including detained persons.”
The announcement deals with broader challenges in the Maryland prison system, in which there are around 17,000 people in 18 institutions under the Department of Correction. Lack of staff, the department has plagued over a decade, which led to $ 185.6 million in the financial year 2025 – 14% of the budget of $ 1 billion. Union officials of the Afscme Maryland Council 3 reported almost nine attacks in state prisons every day and combined violence with underbilading and burnout from double layers. “Appropriate personnel is proactive security,” said Carolyn J. Scruggs, secretary of the Ministry of Public Security and Correction Authorities. “By relocating the staff to the surrounding facilities, we will not only provide coverage to cover the incidents and make our facilities safer, but can also minimize the costly, constant and exhausting cycle of the obligatory overtime, improve morality and reduce burnout.”
The employee transitions prioritize the placements at the nearby Jessup locations, including the correctional institution for women and Dorsey Run Correctional Facility, both on the same campus. These steps aim to strengthen the cover in facilities that already have an electrical upgrade of 32 million US dollars in the entire complex, in which a total of 4,500 people are accommodated. The Jessup campus remains a hub for operations with medium and maximum security, whereby the nearby Jessup Correctional institution has met maximum security needs since 1991.
People will move into phases for several months, starting with those who are in prison, aging residents and people who need the accommodations of the Americans with disabilities. The remaining transmissions go to locations that match the security level, such as the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, the Roxbury Correctional Institution near Hagerstown and North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland. Proponents of prison rights, including the information system in Maryland, welcomed the consolidation efforts, but warned against sending people in distant West Maryland facilities with chronic bottlenecks, which could deteriorate the closures and family visits. Most prisoners in Maryland come from the areas of Baltimore and Prince George's County, which moves a remote start to a barrier for re -entry support.
Programming at MCI-J, including basic training for adults, equivalence of high school, special education, professional deals, willingness to readline, work publication, work for public security and apprenticeships, is expanded in reception facilities. Post-customer options by partners such as the University of Baltimore, Georgetown University, the Goucher College, Bowie State University and the Wor-Wic Community College will continue and match the framework for the nationwide guidelines of the 2024 prison training reform. The commission, founded by the Senate Bill 623, promotes evidence -based education in order to reduce relapses. Studies show that the participants are 43% lower.
“After careful evaluation, the decision to conclude MCI-J is a tax-controlled progress for our state,” said Atif Chaudhry, Secretary of the Ministry for General Services. “By closing MCI-J, we save Maryland taxpayers hundreds of million dollars of avoidable costs in the long term and result in our resources for more sustainable correction solutions.”
This closure reflects the efforts of the past to modernize the aging infrastructure of Maryland. In 2007, then GOV. Martin O'malley secretly handed over 850 people from the original House of Correction in Jessup in the middle of security concerns and later destroyed the location. The current plan avoids a similar abruptness and works with AFSCME for the support of the employees. Maryland's detention rate is 288 per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than many international colleagues, with women 49 per 100,000 being detained – above the rates in Canada and Europe. The state has brought all death penalty to life since 2014, which rejected the execution of the death penalty, which was last carried out in 2005.
Anne Arundel County, in which 590,000 inhabitants and the extensive Jessup Correctional Complex live, sees the closure a minimal direct economic wave, since transfers keep jobs locally. The economy of the district, which is powered by Fort Meade and the port of Baltimore, reduces such shifts routinely. Wider system reforms, including the blocked 1 billion US dollar therapeutic facility in Baltimore, are the control of the unions, the more extensive overhaul than re -arrangement instead of being closed.
Maryland's prison framework, which was ruled by the law on public security and correction services from 1970, emphasizes rehabilitation alongside security. The Department of Correction works according to the standards of the American Correctional Association, whereby institutions such as the Patuxent Institution offer maximum treatment programs for security. Return initiatives that are coordinated by the re-institution offer resource packages and community linkage to reduce the relapse, which is 40% nationwide. If the transmissions develop, the internship department will monitor to ensure access to psychiatric services and drug abuse treatment and to deal with the basic causes in a system that meets different needs from pre -judicial detention to long -term custody.