Why put a cop in that much danger when prison snitches are all too willing to tell what they know in order to cut a deal? If a cop was undercover and he got made, he would be killed, absolutely no question about it. Plus, you'd be going after criminals who were already in prison, thus putting them pretty low on the priority list of people to catch. In general, it would be an irresponsible use of our police force.
My criminology professor told us that he knew of a criminologist who wanted to go inside a prison to conduct a study. He arranged with the warden that he would go inside, be processed like any other prisoner, and that the warden would be the only person in the prison to know about it (this was apparently back before human subjects regulations, etc). As soon as the criminologist got in his cell, he was passed a note that said, "We know who you are. You'll be dead by morning." Apparently, he raised enough of a ruckus to get himself out of the situation, but I think the moral of the story is: don't go undercover in prison.
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