New Prison Coming to Jessup

A new minimum-security prison is coming to Jessup by 2013, officials announced on Monday. 

During the , David Bezanson, assistant secretary for property services with Maryland’s Public Safety and Correctional Services, told approximately 50 people that a prison compound would be built adjacent to the stormwater management pond on Brock Bridge Road.

“There have been $10 million federal and $13.5 million of state money appropriated...for the compound," said Bezanson. It would include an administrative building plus two buildings that had 560 beds apiece, totaling 1,120 beds.

"That’s approximately the number of inmates that were in the House of Correction before we closed it,” said Bezanson.

The House of Correction closed in 2007 after the state deemed it unsafe in the wake of several acts of violence.

Built in the 1870s, the House of Correction had what the state called an “outmoded construction [that] contributed to escalating violence among inmates and against correctional officers, culminating in the death of a correctional officer in July 2006.”

The majority of prisoners who had been in the House of Correction were transferred to North Branch Correctional Institution at Cumberland; others went to federal prisons or state institutions in Kentucky and Virginia, according to officials.

The building still stands between MD 175 and US 1 but "we are designing the deconstruction project for the House of Correction," said Bezanson. "Money has been appropriated for the engineering, and we’re moving forward with that right now. With the support of the General Assembly, we will be taking it down in the next couple of years." 

Bezanson anticipated the new project—called “Dorsey Run Correctional Facility”—would be complete by 2013.

"We changed the name to not use the name Jessup, at your request," said Bezanson.

Just prior to the presentation, Wayne Duvall, the Jessup Improvement Association's president, told the group of his hope to bring a revitalization project to fruition. It would include a community park with land donated from the Anne Arundel Board of Education to the county's park service. It also called for measures to improve road safety, like lowering speed limits and encouraging trucks to use MD 32 instead of MD 175.

"We don’t want to be known any longer as the town that holds all the prisoners for the state of Maryland," said Duvall. "We want to see some citizen enhancements."

Bezanson showed several sketches of the new prison's design and went over some of its enhancements. “We as an agency are pleased that this project will be modern and efficient and cost-effective and secure,” he said, explaining that it would be LEED-certified and have large windows.

One Jessup woman was not so pleased.

“You’re concerned about windows for the prisoners? You have to make sure you’re thinking about the people in this community,” said longtime resident Sarah Shannon.

“[Route] 175 and Route 1 is one of the most hideous places I’ve ever seen,” she continued. “Brock Bridge Road is a narrow, terrible road for people to drive on. The state hasn’t done anything about it. I want to cry when I see the land that the state owns. It’s not just landscaping—it’s management of that road.”

Another member said there was no place for water to drain on Brock Bridge Road, which caused it to flood regularly. 

While Bezanson said that the road was not the state’s responsibility (it falls under county jurisdiction), he noted that prison workers would be maintaining many of central Maryland's thoroughfares.

Approximately 500 of the inmates would have highway cleaning or other work release jobs and leave the institution in vans to serve in the community.

“It will be a last step as those offenders get back to work and get back out the door,” Bezanson said.

Others said they were worried about what an additional 500 prisoners making several trips a day on Brock Bridge Road would mean for an already congested commute.

“The traffic is bad now coming of Brock Bridge Road,” said Fred Steffens, who lives nearby and serves on the Correctional Institutions’ Citizens Advisory Committee. “You’re going to have 500 inmates coming out during the day. You should show what you’re going to do to [improve] Brock Bridge Road.”

Corrections officials said they would take a recommendation to divert traffic from Brock Bridge Road to Guilford back to Commissioner of Correction J. Michael Stouffer.

Grading of the land for the Dorsey Run Correctional Facility will begin next month, said Bezanson, and construction will start in the spring. He anticipated the Dorsey Run Correctional Facility will be finished by April 2013.