Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

Community Revitalization

Topics At A Glance

• Mt. Auburn Cemetery 
• Veteran Cemeteries 
• Farm Gleaning 
• Flood and Storm Clean-up 
• Second Chances Farm 

Mount Auburn Cemetery

In 2008 DPSCS entered a partnership with the historic Mount Auburn Cemetery – sending inmate crews to clear more than 40 acres of brush that had taken over the state’s oldest African American cemetery.  During FY12:

• PSW crews contributed 6,400 hours to the project.
• Since the partnership began a total of 55 inmates have worked at the cemetery.
• In May 2012, DPSCS joined Governor O’Malley, Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake and members of the Mount Auburn Cemetery Foundation to announce the receipt of a grant to continue restoration efforts at the cemetery.

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Veterans Cemeteries

DPSCS’ first-of-its-kind effort using incarcerated veterans, who received honorable discharges, to restore and keep up state veterans cemeteries continues to receive high praise from the public as well as the state Department of Veterans Affairs. During FY12:

• Crews worked 8,160 hours at Crownsville, Cheltenham and Garrison Forest cemeteries.
• Since inception 74 inmates have worked on a Veteran Cemetery crew.

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Farm Gleaning

Maryland inmates picked produce in a unique effort between farmers, DPSCS, and the Maryland Food Bank. Farmers donated their land and crops, but until this partnership the Food Bank had no manpower to collect the fruits and vegetables that would feed thousands of Maryland’s poor. Since beginning this Farm to Food Bank partnership in FY11, crews have gleaned 491,425 pounds of food.

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Flood and Storm Clean-up

Following several major storms in Maryland during the early months of FY12, DPSCS offered a helping hand to any park or town that needed assistance with clean-up. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) accepted a crew for Sandy Point State Park, one of Maryland’s most popular public beaches:

• In two days, five men from the Brockbridge Correctional Facility filled seven dumpsters with logs, trees and debris that had washed ashore

Officials from Cecil County also requested a clean-up crew after waist-high waters left the town of Port Deposit covered in muck and debris:

• Public Works staffers were so impressed with the work ethic of a crew from Baltimore City Correctional Center they asked to retain the crew for 12 days

Following Super Storm Sandy in the fall of 2012, crews assisted the town of Crisfield with flood damage, and on the opposite end of Maryland in Garrett County with downed trees following damaging snow from the same storm system.

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Second Chances Farm

In a partnership with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, DPSCS opened one of only eight inmate-tended thoroughbred rescue farms in the nation in 2009. Offenders learn all aspects of equine care, while horses that may have otherwise faced slaughter have a peaceful home to live out their days.

Learn more about Second Chances Farm and the horses we’ve rescued.

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