The old warden?s house in downtown Towson, built in 1860, has been a stark institution for a long time. Until recently, the large, three-story, beige stoneand cement building housed work-release inmates on spare metal bunks as they awaited trial or served short drunken driving, drug possession or shoplifting sentences. It?s empty now, but it is staying put.
The rest of the old jail, however, constructed around the house in 1956, is going. Baltimore County Executive James Smith gave it a big whack from the seat of a Holland excavator Friday morning.
The 200 inmates who lived inside three separate units moved to the county?s new, state-of-the-art facility on Kenilworth Ave. last month.
Surrounded by 10-foot chain-link fences, rolls of barbed wire and barred windows, the buildings were overcrowded and did not have air conditioning, making life difficult not just for those incarcerated, but for corrections officers as well. The kitchen facility was not operational and meals were carted back and forth from the larger county prison.
The original structure ? where the first warden and his family lived near to the inmates, held in old-fashioned, iron-gated cells ? has fallen into disrepair. But it will be preserved as a historical building and renovated to accommodate a visitor?s center or possibly a veterans? memorial.
Smith and County Council Member Vincent Gardina said public meetings are likely to begin in July to determine what to do with the home and surrounding 40,000 square feet of land.
“It?s not going to go toward county office or commercial space,” Gardina said. “It?s going to be used for community needs, a park or recreation area ? something along those lines.”
Maj. Charles Ittner Jr. has worked at the detention center since 1976, and said life inside for inmates was basic ? if hot at times ? and said trouble at the institution was minimal over the years because of the threat of moving from work release to general population.
“Guys had to be back on time from work, were urine-tested, and if they were drinking alcohol, they were gone,” Ittner said. “They had three meals a day, TV and exercise. We had [Narcotics Anonymous] and [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings here. They could take GED classes, too. We tried to rehabilitate them, not just lock ?em up and throw away the key, as they used to say.”
