A corrections ombudsman? Support building for bill that could reshape the Maryland prison system

On a given day, the roughly 15,000 people in Maryland prison facilities might encounter trouble in a variety of forms: shoddy medical care, fears of violence, confrontations with correctional officers or unhygienic food, to name a few examples. And yet, while prisoners frequently file formal grievances with their facilities, they say those complaints are not always taken seriously.Lawmakers and advocates are increasingly optimistic those prisoners will soon have somewhere else to turn: an ombudsman’s office, which would operate as an independent wing of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, outside the confines of the prison system.