Correctional officer misconduct is one of those subjects most people only hear about after something has gone terribly wrong. A beating. A sexual abuse case. A falsified report. A federal indictment. A sentence handed down years after the original incident took place. By then, the public usually sees only the end of the story. What I have learned from looking closely at correctional institutions is that the real story often starts much earlier — inside a housing unit, behind

Prison corruption is one of those subjects most people do not think about until a headline forces them to look. A guard gets arrested. A contraband ring is exposed. An inmate dies under questionable circumstances. A lawsuit reveals years of ignored warnings. Then the story fades. But in my years writing about the US prison system, I have learned that the real problem is rarely one bad incident. It is the pattern underneath it. It is the silence. It is the pressure. It is the