If You Say You Protect Everyone, Then Everyone Counts
public-safety · September 27, 2026
The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services says its mission is to protect the public, its employees, and the justice-involved individuals for whom it is responsible.
The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services says its mission is to protect the public, its employees, and the justice-involved individuals for whom it is responsible.
Read that again.
The public.
The employees.
The people in custody.
Everybody.
That is not my standard.
That is theirs.
So let us measure the Department by the standard it chose for itself.
Because you cannot say you protect everybody and then only discuss safety when the statistics are favorable.
You cannot say employees are your greatest strength while staff assaults remain a serious concern.
You cannot say the people in your custody matter while incarcerated people are assaulted or killed inside State institutions.
You cannot say institutional security is a priority and then expect nobody to examine what is happening behind the walls.
Put the Words Beside the Numbers
DPSCS publicly describes institutional security as a core responsibility and presents its safety efforts as improving conditions for both staff and incarcerated people.
That is exactly why the numbers matter.
Maryland legislative analysts have reported that assault rates inside the correctional system remain elevated compared with earlier years.
According to Department of Legislative Services data, incarcerated-person-on-incarcerated-person assaults reached 15.15 per 100 average daily population in fiscal 2025, a 109 percent increase from fiscal 2021.
Assaults by incarcerated people against staff reached 6.76 per 100 average daily population, a 127 percent increase from fiscal 2021.
Those are not social-media rumors.
Those are not union slogans.
Those are figures presented in Maryland’s own legislative analysis.
So if DPSCS says violence has been dramatically reduced, the public deserves context.
Reduced from when?
Measured how?
Using what denominator?
Across which facilities?
Over what time period?
What exactly improved?
The words and the numbers should be able to stand beside one another.
If they do not, explain why.
Then There Are the Homicides
The safety discussion cannot stop with assault rates.
Reporting based on DPSCS data showed 14 incarcerated people were killed in Maryland State prisons during calendar year 2025.
Eight had been killed in 2024.
That means 22 incarcerated people were victims of homicide across those two years alone.
Additional homicides were reported in 2026.
Those deaths belong in the conversation.
Because custody creates responsibility.
A person sentenced to incarceration was sentenced to lose certain liberties.
They were not sentenced to be stabbed to death.
They were not sentenced to live in an environment where serious violence becomes routine.
They were not sentenced to become collateral damage inside an institution struggling to maintain control.
Protecting Staff and Protecting Incarcerated People Are Not Competing Goals
This is where people sometimes frame the issue incorrectly.
Correctional officer safety versus incarcerated-person safety.
That is the wrong equation.
They are often the same operational problem viewed from opposite sides of a locked door.
When staffing is inadequate, officers are exposed.
When officers are exhausted, supervision can suffer.
When posts are difficult to fill, institutions become harder to manage.
When institutions become harder to manage, incarcerated people are exposed too.
That is why staffing cannot be separated from safety.
Staffing Is Not an Abstract Number
Maryland legislative analysts reported that, as of August 2025, DPSCS had approximately 474 vacant correctional-officer positions out of 5,192 positions, a vacancy rate of about 9.1 percent.
Analysts also connected stagnant correctional-officer staffing with increased workload, overtime, and attrition.
That matters.
A mission statement cannot fill a post.
A vision statement cannot relieve mandatory overtime.
A slogan cannot provide backup.
A press release cannot stand beside an officer during a violent incident.
Staffing is operational capacity.
And operational capacity affects everybody inside the institution.
Overtime Is a Safety Issue Too
Maryland legislative analysis has also linked excessive correctional overtime with increased operational risk.
That is important because overtime is often discussed as a budget problem.
It is also a people problem.
Fatigue matters.
Decision-making matters.
Alertness matters.
Morale matters.
Retention matters.
Supervision matters.
When employees work excessive hours in high-risk environments, the consequence is not simply a larger payroll.
The consequence can be reduced resilience throughout the institution.
That affects employees.
It affects incarcerated people.
It affects volunteers.
It affects visitors.
Everybody.
The Violence Is Not Theoretical
Maryland has already seen what correctional violence can look like.
DPSCS reported that a North Branch Correctional Institution officer was stabbed in April 2024 and required hospital treatment.
Maryland’s own fallen-heroes memorial preserves the names of correctional employees who died in the line of duty.
Correctional Officer Jeffrey Alan Wroten.
Correctional Officer David Warren McGuinn.
Correctional Officer Gregory Guy Collins.
Correctional Officer Herman Lester Toulson Jr.
And others.
Those names matter.
They are a reminder that correctional work can become deadly.
That is why assaults matter.
That is why staffing matters.
That is why overtime matters.
That is why contraband matters.
That is why experienced employees leaving matters.
Roxbury Belongs in the Conversation
In July 2026, eight incarcerated people were stabbed during a disturbance at Roxbury Correctional Institution.
DPSCS disputed claims that staffing caused the incident.
Union representatives and lawmakers raised staffing concerns.
Both facts belong in the conversation.
Accountability does not require pretending every assault is management’s fault.
It requires refusing to pretend that rising or persistent violence is somebody else’s problem.
There is a difference.
Everybody Means Everybody
DPSCS says it protects employees.
Good.
Then correctional-officer assaults count.
DPSCS says it protects justice-involved individuals.
Good.
Then incarcerated-person assaults count.
DPSCS says it protects the public.
Good.
Then parole-agent safety counts.
Davis Martinez counts.
Correctional officers count.
Case managers count.
Medical staff count.
Civilian employees count.
The incarcerated count.
Families count.
Everybody means everybody.
Davis Martinez Still Belongs in This Story
Agent Davis Martinez was killed while conducting a home visit on May 31, 2024.
After his death, Maryland changed major elements of field safety.
Home visits were suspended.
Protective equipment was upgraded.
Additional security measures were implemented.
Field procedures changed.
When field work resumed, home visits initially required two employees or law-enforcement participation.
That tragedy belongs in this conversation.
But it cannot be the entire conversation.
Because inside Maryland correctional institutions, employees are assaulted.
Incarcerated people are assaulted.
People are stabbed.
People are killed.
And Maryland’s own analysts have documented serious safety pressures.
The same principle should apply everywhere.
Protection should follow risk.
What Does "We Protect Everyone" Look Like in Practice?
That is the question.
Not an insulting question.
Not a partisan question.
Not even a complicated question.
A management question.
What does "we protect everyone" look like when we measure the promise against the outcomes?
Show us through assault rates.
Show us through homicide numbers.
Show us through staffing.
Show us through overtime.
Show us through supervision.
Show us through medical and mental-health services.
Show us through housing-unit coverage.
Show us through contraband control.
Show us through response times.
Show us through whether employees believe they have enough people and enough resources to do the job safely.
And show us whether incarcerated people can reasonably expect to survive the sentence the court actually imposed.
Mission Statements Become Standards
There is nothing wrong with ambitious language.
Public institutions should have values.
They should have goals.
They should describe what they want to become.
But once an institution publicly declares those values, the language becomes measurable.
You said employees matter.
Measure that against employee safety.
You said incarcerated people matter.
Measure that against violence inside institutions.
You said safety is a priority.
Measure that against staffing, overtime, assaults, and homicides.
You said you protect everyone.
Then everyone counts.
That is the standard.
Not mine.
Theirs.
Now put the mission statement beside the assault numbers.
Put it beside the homicide numbers.
Put it beside the staffing numbers.
Put it beside the overtime.
Put it beside the officers who have been injured.
Put it beside the incarcerated people who never walked out.
Put it beside Davis Martinez.
Then ask the question every public institution should be willing to answer:
Does the lived reality match the words on the wall?
Sources
[1] Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, "About DPSCS."
https://dpscs.maryland.gov/about/about.shtml
[2] Maryland Department of Legislative Services, FY 2027 DPSCS budget analysis, correctional operations and performance measures.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/
[3] Maryland Matters / Capital News Service reporting on incarcerated-person homicides in Maryland State prisons during 2024, 2025, and 2026.
https://marylandmatters.org/
[4] Maryland Department of Legislative Services, correctional staffing and overtime analysis, FY 2027.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/
[5] Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, reporting on the April 2024 North Branch Correctional Institution staff assault.
https://dpscs.maryland.gov/
[6] Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Fallen Heroes Memorial.
https://dpscs.maryland.gov/
[7] Maryland Matters, reporting on the July 2026 disturbance and stabbings at Roxbury Correctional Institution.
https://marylandmatters.org/
[8] Maryland Department of Legislative Services, FY 2026 and FY 2027 Community Supervision budget analyses regarding Agent Davis Martinez and post-incident safety measures.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/
Key takeaways
- DPSCS publicly states that its mission includes protecting the public, employees, and justice-involved individuals.
- Maryland legislative analysis reported sharp increases in incarcerated-person-on-incarcerated-person and incarcerated-person-on-staff assault rates between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2025.
- Reporting based on DPSCS data documented 14 incarcerated-person homicides in 2025 and eight in 2024.
- Staffing shortages and correctional overtime remain relevant to institutional safety.
- Protecting staff and protecting incarcerated people should not be treated as competing goals.
- Correctional safety should be measured through assault rates, homicides, staffing, overtime, supervision, and operational capacity.
- Agent Davis Martinez’s death remains part of the broader DPSCS safety conversation because it demonstrated the consequences of occupational risk outside institutions as well.
- Mission statements should be treated as measurable standards, not public-relations language.
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