Armchair quarterbacking the Cabral trial, it seems, at least from the news reports, that it all comes down to this:

'Because I didn't know the new people, I didn't know who I could trust and who I couldn't," Porter said.

That's what jail nurse Sheila Porter gave as a reason that she didn't turn in her report on a prisoner abuse allegation to her new Cabral-led supervisors at the House of Correction.

If your employees don't trust you then they aren't going to be effective employees and you should have the right to terminate their employment. The fact that the employee may or may not be an FBI informants is irrelevant. (And anyway, if they aren't effective employees how can they be effective informants?)

That's how it appears to a casual observer. Did Cabral have mixed motives? That's something that's hanging in the air, although what her ultimate motive would be is unclear.

Is there an additional back story? Harvey Silvergate (for what that's worth) seems to think so and I guess it's not surprising that Cabral completely buys into it.