Metropolitan Transition Center
Maryland Penitentiary, Gate 3
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| Location | 954 Forrest Street Baltimore, Maryland |
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| Status | open |
| Security class | Maximum pre-trial |
| Opened | 1812 |
| Managed by | Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services |
The Maryland Metropolitan Transition Center (MTC), formerly known as the historic "Maryland Penitentiary", is a maximum pre-trial security Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services prison located in Baltimore facing Greenmount Avenue between Forrest Street and East Madison Street. It was established in 1811 as the first prison in the state and the second of its kind in the country and the original buildings faced towards East Madison Street above the east bank of the Jones Falls stream and adjacent to the old stone walls of the Baltimore City Jail (now renamed the Baltimore City Detention Center), earlier established in 1801, rebuilt in 1857-1859, and later in 1959-1965.
Now known as the MTC, the prison still houses Maryland's now decommissioned death chamber. The Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, across the road, housed male "death row" inmates until June 2010, when they were moved to the North Branch Correctional Institution near Cumberland, Maryland in the western portion of the state in Allegany County, Maryland.
When it was established in 1811, the Maryland Penitentiary was much smaller than it is today. Before its opening, convicted criminals were put in county jails or a workhouse where they were employed in public projects such as road building. Inmates were involved in labor for the majority of their time; the area where they worked was silent and they were kept in solitary confinement at all other times.
There were three floors consisting of nine cells holding around 10 people each. Women, however, were housed separately and were forbidden, at all times, to have any communication with men. Compared with other prisons, convicts were treated reasonably well and were kept in hygienic conditions with an ample supply of food. The money they earned from their work was paid back to the prison to compensate for their stay.
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