Final answer:
Gang members telling correctional officials about gang operations and membership is known as defecting, akin to the prisoner's dilemma where a potential reduced sentence motivates the individual to provide information.
Step-by-step explanation:
When gang members tell correctional officials everything they know about gang operations and membership, this is known as defecting. In a scenario that's similar to a prisoner's dilemma, individuals choose between cooperating with their accomplices by remaining silent or defecting by providing information to authorities for a lesser sentence. The corrections system uses this dilemma as a strategy to gather intelligence about criminal activities within gangs, but the dilemma is also a well-known concept in game theory, which applies to strategic decision-making beyond criminal justice.