Children and Incarceration in Maryland: A Complete Guide

Maryland's incarceration story is largely Baltimore's story. The majority of the people in Maryland's state prison system come from Baltimore City, one of America's most consequential urban centers and one of its most economically and structurally stressed. The facilities they are sent to are concentrated in western Maryland: Hagerstown in Washington County, Cumberland in Allegany County, the mountain counties that border West Virginia and Pennsylvania. A family in West Baltimore or East Baltimore or Park Heights whose parent is at North Branch Correctional Institution near Cumberland is looking at a 3-hour drive through the Appalachians each way. For a family without reliable transportation, which describes a significant portion of Baltimore's families, that drive may be effectively impossible.

The racial dimension of that geography is documented and significant. Maryland's incarcerated population is overwhelmingly Black, in a state where Black residents are roughly 30 percent of the population. The disparity in who goes to prison and who goes home is one of the most stark in the country. What that means for the children in this article is specific: the children most likely to have an incarcerated parent in Maryland are Black children in Baltimore, and the children most likely to be unable to visit that parent regularly are the same children, because the facilities are in the mountains three hours away.

I went into the federal system, not the Maryland DOC. I went in when my kids were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20. What I know from 66 months is that the distance and the disparity do not change what the incarcerated parent can do for those children from inside a facility. They make it more urgent.

Baltimore to western Maryland: the axis that defines this system

The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services oversees 18 to 19 prisons and pre-release centers across Maryland. The major facilities are not near Baltimore. Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown is in Washington County, 80 miles west of Baltimore through the mountains. North Branch Correctional Institution is near Cumberland in Allegany County, 140 miles from Baltimore. Western Correctional Institution is in the same region. Patuxent Institution in Jessup is the closest major facility to Baltimore, about 25 miles southwest. The Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center is in Baltimore itself, which means newly incarcerated men begin the process there before being transferred west.

For a mother in Sandtown-Winchester driving to see her son at North Branch, the trip requires a car, fuel money, and most of a day. For a grandmother raising grandchildren in East Baltimore trying to bring those children to see their father, the logistics are real and the cost is real. The Mountain Parkway and the National Pike will get you there, but they will not make it easy.

This is not unique to Maryland. Illinois has the same pattern with Chicago families driving to downstate facilities. Georgia has it with Atlanta families driving to south Georgia. But Maryland's version is compressed into a smaller geography with a sharper racial concentration and fewer resources for many of the families most affected.

What the geography means for the children who cannot visit

When a child cannot visit regularly, which is the situation for many Baltimore families with a parent in western Maryland, what the incarcerated parent does on the phone and in letters and in video visits becomes the primary substance of the relationship.

The DPSCS uses ConnectNetwork (GTL/ViaPath) for phone services and Access Corrections for money order management. Virtual visitation shifted to Microsoft Teams for video calls. These are the tools available. The question, as always, is what the parent inside does with them.

A Baltimore child whose parent is at Hagerstown and who cannot visit is not insulated from the absence by the existence of phone calls. They feel the parent's absence as a physical fact. What they need the phone calls to be is proof that the parent is still there, still paying attention, still thinking about them specifically. Ask about their school. Remember their teacher's name. Ask about the friend they mentioned. Ask about the test they were nervous about. That continuity of attention is what phone access allows, and it is more important when the visit cannot happen.

The decision both parents make in Maryland

My wife never said a word against me to our six children during 66 months. She had every reason. She had six kids in a situation I had created. She chose to let them love me without penalty. What I have with my adult children today is the direct consequence of that choice.

The parent inside a Maryland facility carries the same obligation. The ConnectNetwork phone call, the Microsoft Teams video visit, the letter: all of those are the contact the child gets. Use them to be actually present. Ask what happened in school. Remember what the child said last time and ask about it this time by name. Show the child that you are paying attention from Hagerstown or Cumberland or Jessup.

The outside parent in Baltimore or wherever the family is carries the same obligation in the other direction. In a city where incarceration has touched so many families, there are neighbors, cousins, teachers, and community members who have been through the same thing. The community context can be supportive or it can compound what the child is already carrying. What the outside parent controls is what they say at home, in front of the children, about the incarcerated parent. My wife never said anything against me. That is why I have what I have now.

What the ages mean in Maryland

My children were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20 when I went in.

The 9-year-old in Baltimore whose parent is three hours west in Cumberland needs the same thing every 9-year-old in this series needs: to hear directly and repeatedly that none of what happened is their fault. Children under 10 build private, silent explanations for a parent's absence. In communities where incarceration is common, a child may understand in general terms what has happened while still carrying a private belief that they specifically caused it. Those are different things. The general knowledge does not touch the private wound. What touches it is the parent saying, directly, on a call or in a letter: this is not about you. I love you. I am still your parent.

The 11 and 12-year-old in Baltimore is in middle school at the exact moment when peer identity dominates, when the comparison between what their family has and what other families have becomes sharply visible. A parent in prison is a visible fact in Baltimore's school communities in a way that both normalizes the experience and stigmatizes the individual child. The incarcerated parent who calls consistently, who asks real questions about the child's actual life, who tracks the specific things happening in the child's specific world week by week, is doing parenting that the distance cannot eliminate.

The 15-year-old in Baltimore has, by now, a clear picture of what is happening and what it has cost. They have watched the outside parent manage everything alone. They have formed views about who each parent is. A parent who calls a 15-year-old from western Maryland to instruct them about their life choices will not keep the teenager. A parent who calls to listen, who can be honest about what happened without making every call about it, will. Ask more than you tell.

The 18 and 20-year-old is an adult making their own assessment. Show up as someone worth the conclusion they reach.

What the outside parent carries in Maryland

The outside parent in Baltimore is managing children, a household, and the ongoing reality of living in a city that has been economically stressed for generations while also managing the logistics of having a partner in a facility three hours away. They may be doing this without reliable transportation, without nearby family support, and while working multiple jobs.

What they need from the incarcerated parent is acknowledgment. One ConnectNetwork call where the person inside names specifically what they see the outside parent carrying and says thank you for it is worth more than any instruction delivered from Hagerstown or Cumberland. My wife carried six children through 66 months. She deserved to hear that I saw it and was grateful for it. I said so as often as the access allowed.

For the outside parent: the children of incarcerated parents in Maryland are watching both adults. They will carry what they hear the outside parent say about the person who is gone, across the 3-hour drive and the years between visits. Speak carefully. The child who grows up knowing both parents tried to protect them from the worst of it is the child with the best chance.

How communication works in Maryland

Phone calls through Maryland DPSCS go through GTL/ViaPath ConnectNetwork. Set up an AdvancePay prepaid account or PIN Debit account through ConnectNetwork at (877) 650-4249. FCC rate caps effective April 6, 2026, limit calls to $0.11 per minute at prisons and large jails plus a facility fee. Note that fees may apply to all deposit methods.

For money orders: DPSCS uses Access Corrections for management and processing of all money orders at all Maryland correctional institutions.

For virtual visitation: DPSCS currently uses Microsoft Teams for virtual social visitation (video and audio), which replaced Skype after COVID-era protocols were introduced.

For in-person visitation: visitors must be on the approved visitor list. Visitors 16 and older must present valid state-issued photo ID. Visitors 18 and younger must be immediate family to the incarcerated individual or to an adult visitor. Visitors may not be under supervision of Parole and Probation, on home detention, have open warrants, or be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. All visitors must pass security protocols which may include a frisk search.

At MCI-Hagerstown: registration begins 8:15 AM, ends 1:45 PM. General population may have up to 2 visits per week; each visit 1 hour subject to space availability. Address: 18601 Roxbury Road, Hagerstown, MD 21746. Phone: (240) 420-1000.

DPSCS inmate locator: dpscs.maryland.gov. DPSCS headquarters: 6776 Reisterstown Road, Suite 309, Baltimore, MD 21215. Phone: (410) 585-3300.

Federal inmates in Maryland fall under BOP jurisdiction. BOP communication uses TRULINCS for email via CORRLINKS and TRUFONE for phone. FCC rate caps apply; First Step Act programming offers 300 free minutes per month.

Where this leaves you

Maryland sends Baltimore's children to visit parents in the Appalachians. That geography is not accidental and the racial dimension of it is not accidental. The children most affected by Maryland's incarceration system are the children with the least ability to absorb its costs.

What the incarcerated parent can do is still the same thing it is in every state: be present with the access available. Call through ConnectNetwork on a consistent schedule. Use the Microsoft Teams video visit. Write the letter. Ask the real question. Remember the answer. Ask about it next time. Acknowledge specifically what the outside parent is carrying and say thank you.

The outside parent who keeps the door open, who manages the logistics and the drive and the children's questions with grace, is doing something extraordinary. My wife did it for 66 months with six children. What I have now is what that made possible. Both parents making the choices that protect the children is what gives those children the best version of what is available from an imperfect situation. Make those choices. The children are watching.