Parole, MD

Parole is both a historic African American community and one of Anne Arundel County's principal growth areas at the western edge of Annapolis. Its name comes from Camp Parole, where the Union held soldiers released from Confederate prisons while they awaited formal exchange during the Civil War. African American workers who came to the camp formed a community after the war, farmed the surrounding land, and established institutions whose history remains part of Parole's identity. The modern census-designated place covers 10.27 square miles and counted 17,877 residents in 2020. Over the same period, 64 percent of occupied homes were owner-occupied, the median owner-occupied value was $533,500, monthly mortgage costs were $2,659, and median gross rent was $2,306. Because Parole is unincorporated, its named everyday destinations are county, commercial, medical, and transit facilities rather than a municipal center. Annapolis Mall contains Discoveries, an Anne Arundel County Public Library branch that became permanent in 2020.

It lends recent books and media, provides in-branch laptops, wireless printing and Wi-Fi, and schedules children's, teen, and adult programs; city and county buses stop at the mall. Nearby, Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center occupies the Medical Parkway campus, while Annapolis Transit’s Red Route links the mall and medical center with Eastport from Monday through Saturday. A separate mixed-use complex, Annapolis Town Center, combines residences, shops, restaurants, and offices and schedules outdoor summer music. County planning treats the surrounding Parole Town Center as a targeted growth area. Its master plan, adopted in 2023, calls for improved bicycle and pedestrian links, additional public amenities, more green space, and better connections among subareas. The plan responds to the separation among large road-oriented destinations by making connections between subareas a stated priority, while the older Parole community retains a history distinct from neighboring Annapolis.