Telford prison system starving inmates of Food and No lights.

Telford prison is in trouble.

In recent interviews, inmates claimed they were malnourished from being fed small, sometimes rotting sack meals in their cells and rarely got to go outside. And former correctional officers said they felt unsafe, forced to cut corners and work too much overtime in a unit that holds more than 2,500 men.

“Working those longer hours and having that safety aspect in the back of your mind that maybe you’re not as safe as you should be or as you were, it wears on you,” said one former officer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation against his friends who still work at the prison. “I’ve known [officers] to get physically ill at the mere thought of going to Telford.”

The problems at the maximum-security prison — tucked away on the outskirts of this small town in the northeastern corner of Texas near Texarkana — are largely blamed on a shortage of guards. In April, the prison employed only 65 percent of the full-time correctional officers it’s authorized to have — a shortage of nearly 200 — according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman. That’s one of the highest officer vacancy rates in the state.