By Luke Parker
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — Eight inmates at Roxbury Correctional Institution were stabbed and hospitalized Saturday after a gang fight in the Western Maryland facility, according to the state’s Correctional Officers’ Union.
Linda He, a spokesperson for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland Council 3, told The Baltimore Sun that a brawl broke out on Saturday evening between members of MS-13 and the Black Guerrilla Family.
The injured inmates, she said, were sent to separate hospitals. Their conditions as of Tuesday were not clear. It also was not clear whether any of the inmates will face additional charges from Saturday’s incident.
A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services acknowledged questions about the fight and a comment request but was not able to respond before publication.
AFSCME officials said Tuesday that the weekend violence at Roxbury “is unfortunately nothing new,” a byproduct of continued, critical staffing needs.
“Without sufficient staffing levels, both staff and incarcerated individuals face risk of violence, injury and even death every single day,” AFSCME Maryland wrote in a statement.
State data shows that assaults in Maryland’s prison system are rising, spiking even, in both rates and severity.
Between 2024 and 2025, DPSCS reported that 22 inmate deaths had been classified as homicides — a total nearing half of all prison homicides since 2015.
The 14 that took place last year became the highest annual count in the last decade.
These jolts in incidents come as the state continues to try and stabilize staffing levels at its correctional facilities.
Although DPSCS reported that the job vacancy rates at its prisons had been cut in half since the Moore administration took over in 2023, department data shows that the number of allocated officer positions has decreased about 18% between 2019 and 2025.
AFSCME officials say that drop, which sees positions consolidated, has resulted in burnout for staff members and more dangerous conditions for everyone in the state’s correctional institutions.
A report last year from the union found that all of Maryland’s correctional institutions were operating at a ratio of more than 100 inmates per officer.
AFSCME officials said Tuesday that the state’s continued reliance “on short-sighted and unsustainable solutions” such as mandatory, 16-hour shifts is taking away from “what’s actually needed” — more employees.
“Without addressing the low pay and dangerous working conditions that staff face, DPSCS will continue to struggle with record assault and homicide rates in state facilities, and incarcerated individuals will not receive the programming and rehabilitation they need,” the union wrote.
Editor’s note: A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services released a statement that read in part: “This was not the result of short staffing. Our operational assessments confirm that adequate security protocols were, and remain, in place, and that this event was unrelated to current staffing levels.”
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