Parole, a suburb of Annapolis, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,922 at the 2010 census. It is where several major roads intersect at the western edge of the state capital, Annapolis, and contains the Annapolis Mall, and a number of other large shopping centers, and the Anne Arundel Medical Center. It is generally considered to be part of Annapolis rather than a separate town. The neighborhood was named because it was a parole camp, where Union and Confederate prisoners of war were brought for mutual exchange and eventual return to their respective homes.