October 8, 2016
A massive federal racketeering and drug-trafficking case at Maryland’s biggest prison offers a glimpse at the deep roots of corruption that criminal justice experts say grips the U.S. corrections system. Prosecutors unsealed the indictment of 80 guards, inmates and outsiders this week. It was the biggest federal case ever filed in Maryland, and it highlights the difficulties dogging the tarnished state system despite years of reforms, government officials and prison advocates said.
With a nationwide surge in incarceration in recent years, correctional institutions are struggling to hire enough well-qualified officers to guard the bloated prisoner population. But the job offers low wages and dangerous working conditions, creating an atmosphere in which corruption can fester.