MD DPSCS Has New Clothes. Who Is Fooling Who?
commentary · October 24, 2026
There is an old story about an emperor who was convinced he was wearing the finest clothes ever made.
There is an old story about an emperor who was convinced he was wearing the finest clothes ever made.
The fabric was supposedly so extraordinary that only intelligent and competent people could see it.
Nobody wanted to admit they could not see anything.
The emperor believed he was dressed magnificently.
His advisers praised the outfit.
The people applauded as he walked through the streets.
Everybody played along.
Until a child finally said what everyone else was afraid to acknowledge.
The emperor was wearing nothing.
I find myself thinking about that story when I look at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, particularly the recent announcements about staffing, declining assaults, new technology, leadership changes, and institutional progress.
There is certainly plenty to announce.
There are numbers to celebrate.
New officers.
New cameras.
New wardens.
New training.
New incentives.
New statistics showing improvement.
My question is considerably simpler:
Are we witnessing meaningful institutional reform, or are we watching an organization become increasingly effective at presenting the appearance of reform?
Those are two very different things.
And somebody needs to be willing to ask whether the emperor actually has clothes on.
New Leadership. New Numbers. New Narrative.
On October 23, 2026, reporting described a visit to Roxbury Correctional Institution involving DPSCS Secretary Carolyn Scruggs, senior department officials, state lawmakers, and representatives of Governor Wes Moore's administration.
DPSCS pointed to several developments.
The Department says its vacancy rate has fallen dramatically from where it stood several years ago.
It says 59 correctional officers have graduated from academies since August, including 27 assigned to Western Maryland.
Roxbury has a new warden.
Temporary officers have been shifted into Roxbury and the neighboring Maryland Correctional Training Center while permanent vacancies are filled.
DPSCS also reported that monthly assaults across the Division of Correction were down approximately 40 percent during the previous three months compared with the same period one year earlier.
The Department pointed to body-worn cameras, expanded surveillance, crisis de-escalation training, recruitment incentives, and other changes as evidence of progress.
Those are not insignificant developments.
I am not going to pretend hiring officers has no value.
I am not going to pretend declining assaults are meaningless.
I am not going to pretend better equipment cannot improve safety.
That would be intellectually dishonest.
But neither should improvement become immunity from examination.
The question is whether these developments represent a fundamental change in how the Department operates or a better-looking version of the same institution.
New clothes do not automatically mean a new body underneath them.
The Numbers Are Dressed for the Occasion
This is where the conversation gets particularly interesting.
DPSCS has repeatedly highlighted a reduction in its vacancy rate from 15.36 percent in 2022 to 8.42 percent in 2026.
That sounds impressive.
And mathematically, it may be completely accurate.
But a vacancy rate answers one question:
How many authorized positions are currently unfilled?
It does not necessarily answer:
How many employees are actually required to perform the work safely?
That distinction matters.
Capital News Service analyzed DPSCS data and found that the number of allocated correctional officer positions across Maryland's 13 State prisons declined approximately 18 percent between July 2019 and July 2025.
Maryland's Department of Legislative Services reported something else worth examining.
In August 2024, DPSCS had approximately 4,772 filled correctional officer positions.
One year later, despite continued recruitment efforts, there were approximately 4,718 filled positions.
DLS concluded that the number of filled correctional officer positions had remained relatively stagnant while the incarcerated population was increasing, contributing to workload, overtime, and attrition pressures.
That does not mean DPSCS is falsifying its vacancy rate.
That is not my argument.
It means the vacancy percentage cannot carry the entire staffing conversation.
Consider the mathematics.
If an organization reduces the number of positions against which vacancies are calculated, then fills a larger percentage of the remaining positions, the vacancy rate improves.
That improvement can be real.
The operation can still remain understaffed.
The denominator matters.
Maryland Already Has a Better Staffing Measurement
We do not have to invent a better standard.
Maryland law already provides one.
Correctional Services § 3-207.1 requires a periodic security and staffing report based on a joint survey by Division of Correction administrators and the employees' exclusive bargaining representative.
That report is supposed to include:
- a post-by-post analysis of the actual number of positions necessary to safely and securely staff each institution;
- overtime required to meet minimum staffing;
- activities affected by staffing shortages;
- expected employee turnover;
- and the need for additional staff.
Now we are getting somewhere.
Because there is a difference between:
Authorized staffing
and
Required staffing.
There is a difference between:
Filled positions
and
employees actually available to work a post today.
Leave matters.
Training matters.
Injuries matter.
Vacancies matter.
Restrictions matter.
Mandatory overtime matters.
The post still needs somebody standing there.
So perhaps the public conversation should move beyond:
"Our vacancy rate is 8.42 percent."
Tell us:
How many posts should exist?
How many are funded?
How many employees are assigned?
How many are actually available?
How much mandatory overtime is required to make the operation work?
Those numbers tell us considerably more.
Short-Term Improvement and Long-Term Reality Can Both Be True
The Department's reported decline in assaults deserves recognition.
A 40 percent reduction over a comparable three-month period would be meaningful if sustained.
But timeframe matters.
Earlier in 2026, the Department of Legislative Services reported that correctional violence remained elevated over the longer term.
In fiscal 2025, incarcerated-person-on-incarcerated-person assaults reached 15.15 per 100 average daily population, 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 numbers do not disprove the more recent decline.
And the recent decline does not erase those numbers.
Both can be true.
Violence could have increased substantially over several years and then declined meaningfully over the past several months.
That would actually be encouraging.
But if that is the story, tell the entire story.
Do not give the public whichever window makes the organization look best.
Show the trend.
Show the definitions.
Show the denominator.
Show the facilities.
Show staff assaults separately.
Show incarcerated-person assaults separately.
Show serious injuries.
Show homicides.
Then keep publishing the same measurements.
If the improvement is real, consistency will prove it.
A Camera Is Not a Correctional Officer
Maryland has invested heavily in body-worn cameras and surveillance technology.
The statewide correctional body-camera rollout became fully operational during summer 2026 under an Axon contract reported at approximately $4.1 million annually.
There are legitimate reasons to support that investment.
A camera can document misconduct.
It can preserve evidence.
It can protect an employee against a false allegation.
It can strengthen investigations.
It may even influence behavior before an incident escalates.
Good.
But let us stop asking technology to pretend it is something it is not.
A camera cannot physically intervene when an officer is attacked.
It cannot occupy an uncovered post.
It cannot relieve an employee who has already worked 16 hours.
It cannot transport an incarcerated person.
It cannot conduct a count.
It cannot provide backup.
It cannot replace experienced employees who leave faster than replacements can be developed.
And it cannot make exhaustion disappear.
A camera can record the problem.
It cannot become the correctional officer responding to it.
Technology may be part of the safety solution.
It cannot become camouflage for a staffing problem.
Moving the Furniture Does Not Repair the House
There is another feature of institutional reform that deserves examination.
Leadership changes.
New wardens.
Reorganizations.
Reassigned responsibilities.
New committees.
Updated directives.
I have spent enough time inside public institutions to understand that leadership changes can absolutely matter.
A capable leader can change expectations.
Improve morale.
Demand accountability.
Correct bad practices.
Listen to employees.
Create stability.
So I am not dismissing the appointment of a new warden at Roxbury or any other leadership change.
But moving the furniture does not automatically repair the house.
A new administrator can inherit:
the same staffing shortage,
the same mandatory overtime,
the same damaged culture,
the same inconsistent accountability,
the same infrastructure,
and the same unresolved operational risks.
The organizational chart changes.
The system may not.
That is why leadership changes should eventually produce measurable results.
What failed?
What changed?
What did the new leader do differently?
What happened afterward?
If an institution cannot identify what produced the original problem, it becomes difficult to know whether the response actually addressed it.
Otherwise:
The emperor simply has a new tailor.
Roxbury Is an Especially Important Test
Roxbury Correctional Institution did not suddenly become an accountability issue because officials toured it in October.
Earlier this year, the institution experienced serious violence.
Two incarcerated people were killed there in May.
Eight more were stabbed during a July disturbance.
The former warden retired, the chief of security left State service, correctional officers faced administrative actions, medical contractor employees were barred from State facilities, and State Police and DPSCS investigations followed.
AFSCME raised staffing concerns.
DPSCS disputed that staffing caused the July stabbings.
Both facts belong in the record.
Now DPSCS is reporting substantial improvements at Roxbury and across Western Maryland.
Excellent.
Then Roxbury becomes an ideal place to test whether reform is real.
Publish the numbers.
Staffing before and after.
Mandatory overtime before and after.
Assaults before and after.
Serious incidents before and after.
Use of force before and after.
Employee turnover before and after.
Programs canceled because of staffing before and after.
If the new approach is working, Roxbury can become evidence.
Not just an announcement.
We Cannot Forget the Employees Outside the Walls
DPSCS is more than correctional institutions.
Its responsibilities include community supervision.
On May 31, 2024, Parole and Probation Agent Davis Martinez was killed while conducting a home visit.
That death raised serious questions about field safety, communication, equipment, workplace-violence prevention, supervision, and organizational risk.
MOSH later cited DPSCS for workplace-safety deficiencies associated with recognized hazards.
Maryland responded.
Home visits were suspended.
Multi-threat protective vests were purchased.
Armed guards were placed in DPP offices.
Tracking technology was added.
Field procedures changed.
Law-enforcement coordination increased.
The General Assembly went further in 2026.
It requested a DPSCS report due October 1 detailing implementation of parole and probation safety measures, including body-worn cameras, multi-threat vests, other protective equipment, training completion, costs, pilot programs, and police-escort practices.
That creates another simple accountability question:
What can employees and the public now verify?
Not what was ordered.
Not what was planned.
Not what was announced.
What reached the field?
What percentage of employees received it?
Who completed the training?
How many home visits required law-enforcement accompaniment?
What changed in actual practice?
Again:
What does the employee walking through the door have today that the employee walking through the door did not have before?
Protection should follow the risk.
Not the press release.
Everybody Sees the Clothes. Nobody Wants to Challenge the Tailor.
The Emperor's New Clothes is not simply a story about a foolish emperor.
It is a story about everybody around him.
The advisers.
The officials.
The spectators.
The people who saw something was wrong but had incentives to keep applauding.
That may be the more uncomfortable comparison.
Institutional dysfunction rarely survives because of one person.
It survives because multiple participants have reasons not to disturb the prevailing narrative.
Agency leadership wants to demonstrate progress.
An administration wants evidence that its policies are working.
Legislators want oversight to produce results.
Labor organizations want members to know they are fighting for them.
Managers want to protect careers.
Employees may fear consequences for speaking too loudly.
None of that automatically makes anyone dishonest.
But those incentives can make accountability difficult.
AFSCME Does Not Get a Free Pass Either
If we are going to examine the entire system, then examine the entire system.
AFSCME has repeatedly challenged DPSCS staffing levels, mandatory overtime, workplace violence, and employee safety.
Many of those concerns are supported by legitimate evidence and deserve serious consideration.
But a union's responsibility cannot stop with telling employees what management did wrong.
What happened when those concerns were raised?
What contractual remedies were pursued?
What grievances were filed?
What legislation was advanced?
What staffing provisions were enforced?
What escalation occurred when earlier warnings failed?
What did collective bargaining accomplish?
What did it fail to accomplish?
What should happen differently next time?
Those are fair questions too.
Accountability cannot be something we demand exclusively from the other side of the bargaining table.
If management says it is protecting employees, show the results.
If the union says it is fighting for employees, show the results.
Everybody gets measured.
Maybe the Department Really Is Turning a Corner
That possibility should remain open.
Perhaps the new officers are beginning to stabilize institutions.
Perhaps retention efforts are working.
Perhaps body cameras are changing behavior.
Perhaps better leadership at Roxbury is producing results.
Perhaps crisis de-escalation training is contributing to fewer assaults.
Perhaps the Department is finally addressing problems that accumulated over many years.
If so, good.
I do not need DPSCS to fail in order for earlier criticism to have been justified.
Read that again.
Accountability is not rooting for failure.
The goal should be improvement.
If conditions improve, say they improved.
If leadership deserves credit, give credit.
But improvement has to survive measurement.
Three good months should become six.
Six should become twelve.
Lower vacancy percentages should produce fewer mandatory doubles.
More officers should create more stable posts.
Better equipment should contribute to fewer injuries.
Training should produce measurable operational outcomes.
New leadership should create sustained changes employees can actually feel.
That is how the Department proves the clothes are real.
Who Is Fooling Who?
Perhaps nobody is intentionally fooling anybody.
That is possible too.
Maybe DPSCS leadership sincerely believes the Department has turned a corner.
Maybe the most recent results genuinely represent the beginning of long-overdue institutional improvement.
I hope they do.
I would much rather write about an institution that corrected its problems than one that spent another decade explaining why it could not.
But hope is not evidence.
A press release is not an operational assessment.
A facility tour is not an independent evaluation.
A lower vacancy percentage is not proof of adequate staffing.
Three months of declining assaults do not erase years of elevated violence.
A body camera is not a correctional officer.
And replacing leadership does not automatically reform an institution.
The people working inside these facilities know what happens when staffing is inadequate.
They know what mandatory overtime feels like.
Supervisors know what happens when operational expectations exceed available resources.
Incarcerated people know what happens when systems lose control.
Families know what happens when public-safety institutions fail.
The public deserves more than competing narratives about who is doing a better job.
It deserves transparent, repeatable measurements.
So put the numbers on the table.
Authorized positions.
Funded positions.
Required positions.
Filled positions.
Available employees.
Mandatory overtime.
Turnover.
Assaults.
Serious injuries.
Homicides.
Use of force.
Post closures.
Program cancellations.
Training completion.
Safety recommendations.
Implementation status.
Publish them consistently.
Then we do not have to argue about the clothes.
We can see them.
I am not claiming every announced improvement is imaginary.
I am asking whether the entire picture being presented accurately represents the institution underneath it.
That distinction matters.
Because there is a difference between recognizing genuine progress and allowing genuine progress to become an excuse for ignoring everything that remains unresolved.
DPSCS does not need another opportunity to tell Maryland how much better things look.
It needs to demonstrate, consistently and transparently, how much better things actually are.
And every participant in this system, from the Governor's Office to DPSCS leadership, legislators, labor representatives, and individual managers, should be willing to face that standard.
The emperor did not become properly dressed because everybody applauded.
He remained exposed until somebody was willing to say what they saw.
Maryland should not need a child standing in the crowd to ask the questions its public institutions are already responsible for answering.
So, who is fooling who?
Maybe the more important question is this:
Who is willing to stop applauding long enough to actually look?
Sources
Maryland Department of Legislative Services, Fiscal 2027 DPSCS Budget Overview.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/pubs/budgetfiscal/2027fy-budget-docs-operating-Q00-DPSCS-Overview.pdf
Maryland Department of Legislative Services, Issue Papers – 2026 Legislative Session, DPSCS Staffing and Vacancies.
https://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/RecurRpt/Issue_Papers_2026_Legislative_Session.pdf
Maryland General Assembly, Correctional Services § 3-207.1, Security and Staffing Report.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/Statute_Web/gcs/3-207.1.pdf
Capital News Service, "Maryland state prisons saw forty-six inmate homicides since 2015, twenty-two were in the last two years," April 23, 2026.
https://cnsmaryland.org/2026/04/23/maryland-state-prisons-saw-forty-six-inmate-homicides-since-2015-twenty-two-were-in-the-last-year/
Maryland Matters, "Eight Roxbury Correctional Institution inmate stabbings over July 4 revive staffing questions," July 19, 2026.
https://marylandmatters.org/2026/07/19/eight-roxbury-correctional-institution-inmate-stabbings-over-july-4-revive-staffing-questions/
Maryland Matters, "Clash between union and state over prison staffing heats up after discussions stall," July 22, 2026.
https://marylandmatters.org/2026/07/22/clash-between-union-and-state-over-prison-staffing-heats-up-after-discussions-stall/
Tri-State Alert, "State leaders tour Roxbury prison, cite new warden, extra officers and falling assaults," October 23, 2026.
https://www.tristatealert.com/state-leaders-tour-roxbury-prison-cite-new-warden-extra-officers-and-falling-assaults
Maryland Department of Legislative Services, DPSCS Community Supervision – Fiscal 2026 Budget Analysis.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/pubs/budgetfiscal/2026fy-budget-docs-operating-Q00C-DPSCS-Community-Supervision.pdf
Maryland General Assembly, 2026 Public Safety and Administration Subcommittee Report, Parole and Probation Agent Safety Efforts.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/Pubs/BudgetFiscal/2026_House_Public_Safety_and_Administration_Subcommittee_Report.pdf
The Daily Record, "MD prison officials say new body cameras protect officers, inmates," September 4, 2026.
https://thedailyrecord.com/2026/09/04/maryland-rolls-out-body-cameras-to-improve-prison-safety/
This commentary reflects my analysis of publicly reported developments and official records available through October 24, 2026. Department claims, union claims, legislative findings, and independently reported data are identified as such rather than treated as interchangeable.
Key takeaways
- DPSCS is reporting legitimate recent improvements, including new correctional officers, workforce incentives, body-worn cameras, leadership changes, and declining short-term assault numbers.
- The Department says its vacancy rate has fallen from 15.36% in 2022 to 8.42% in 2026.
- Vacancy percentage measures vacancies against authorized positions. It does not by itself establish whether authorized staffing is sufficient for safe operations.
- Capital News Service found that allocated correctional officer positions across Maryland's 13 State prisons declined approximately 18% between July 2019 and July 2025.
- Department of Legislative Services data show approximately 4,772 filled correctional officer positions in August 2024 compared with 4,718 in August 2025.
- DPSCS reported a roughly 40% decline in monthly assaults during a recent three-month period compared with the same period one year earlier.
- That short-term improvement should be viewed alongside DLS data showing fiscal 2025 assault rates remained more than twice fiscal 2021 levels for both incarcerated-person-on-incarcerated-person assaults and assaults on staff.
- Maryland law already requires a post-by-post correctional staffing analysis focused on actual staffing needed for safe operations, overtime, operational impact, turnover, and additional staffing needs.
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