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DENTON – For the second consecutive week, the future of the Caroline County Detention Center came up during the Nov. 25, 2025 meeting of the County Commissioners in Denton.
County Administrator Katheleen Freeman reported on the previous week’s meeting with James Dunkerson of the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services. Discussed was a potential timeline for either renovating the current county detention center or building a new one.
Freeman learned that once two mandatory reports were submitted to the state, possible state funding would be about five years out.
“So in addition to that, we're looking at other funding opportunities as well,” Freeman said.
With Warden Charles Scott of the Department of Corrections in attendance, Porter asked him, “Is there any possibility that it would be feasible to renovate the current Detention Center and meet the qualifications that we're going to have to meet going forward?”
“No, I don’t,” Scott said. “The problem with the current facility is we don't have program space. Where we were looking to put program space, the plan required us to dig deep to have enough ceiling clearance to have inmates in (that) area. You never really want incarcerated individuals in an area where they even can jump and reach the ceiling. And our program room, depending on your height, you may have to duck just to walk through the room.”
“So, in your opinion then, we take renovation of the current facility off the table?” Porter asked.
Scott said yes, citing other problems with the current jail on Gay Street, including a leaking roof and old, leaking windows. “And even the ceiling of the third floor – a portion of it is not even really secure. That's how we had an inmate go through the ceiling and come out in the attic.”
Porter said that while roofs can be fixed and windows replaced, he was concerned about adequate interior space. If renovating the current facility “can’t be done, then I would not want to see a lot of time spent evaluating whether that can be done or not,” he said.
Scott said renovations in one area would require the same in all in order to meeting code requirements. “Right now we're kind of grandfathered in because our housing unit areas don't meet the code for ADA, and the size of cells and the way the units are set up. So you would have to go up. Then once you renovate a housing space, you're gonna have to renovate them all.”
Breeding said renovation wasn’t “out of the realm of possibility. It may be the only option that we have.” However, there may be other funding sources available, given the jail’s waterfront location in “the critical area, possibly affected by climate change,” he said.
“So there may be additional federal funding sources available to help us offset the cost of building a new facility by relocating ours out of the critical area, out of the flood plain,” he said. He added that building up may not be feasible, and there is no room to expand outward.
“So if we do a full renovation to that facility, we're kind of locked there forever, with nowhere to go – you can't go up, can't go out,” Breeding said. “So if we don't try to move somewhere else, we lose all that flexibility to increase the size of the facility. So I think it's an option, but I think it's option of last resort to try to stay there.” Even so, necessary repairs, especially to the soffit, would have to be made, he said.
Porter anticipated potential residents’ objections to relocating the facility in proximity to them. However, Commissioner Frank Bartz said constituents he had heard from “didn't have a bad taste of building a new detention center” near them.
Freeman said a meeting was scheduled with Denton Town Manager Scott Getchell, “and then I think we would need to talk with the town council, assuming we’d be looking at the site we've been … pondering is behind the sheriff's department on Double Hills Road. So that would be within the town.”
Since the annual deadline is March 1 for Part 1 of a programming study in accordance with the state Local Jails Capital Improvement Policy and Procedures Manual, Breeding said the county would probably have to shoot for March 1, 2027, to submit the study.
