Officials in Essex Monday announced a review of the county’s correctional facility in light of several alleged inmate beatings at the lockup, as advocates for the prisoners inside planned a rally to bring attention to the issues.
A civilian task force, led by retired Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose, will review the operating procedures at the jail, including security, staffing roles and responsibilities of all employees from the time inmates enter the facility at intake to the time they are released, according to a statement from the county.
“We have worked hard to earn accreditation from the ACA (American Correctional Association) and provide a safe and secure environment at our Correctional Facility,” Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr said in a statement. “We want to ensure that our policies and procedures are focused to allow us to operate our jail efficiently and safely. We need a fresh set of eyes to review our policies and standards.”
Outside of the review, the attorney general’s office is investigating the death of an inmate that occurred on last week at the jail.
BMB Law Firm, which has been retained by the man’s family in a potential lawsuit against the jail, said the 27-year-old was stabbed by another inmate with a sharpened metal rod last Friday and placed in a detention cell.
The inmate was taken to University Hospital in Newark that morning, where he was pronounced dead at 9:03 a.m., according to the AG’s office.
Attorney Michael Thomas Licciardi called placing the man in a detention cell and not taking him to a medical ward an “act of incomprehensible cruelty.”
The attorney general’s office has not announced the details of how the man died.
His death comes a just over two month after another inmate, who transferred from Union County, was brutally beaten with a microwave and stomped by seven other inmates. Charges have been filed against all seven men seen on video attacking Jashawn Boyd.
Boyd’s attorney said corrections officers didn’t intervene in the attack and that the 22-year-old was improperly housed in a gang unit.
An investigation into the beating is being handled by the county prosecutor’s office.
DiVincenzo said his administration and the jail’s officers and staff are “fully cooperating” with both the investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
A rally organized by New Jersey Prison Justice Watch is planned for Wednesday at the Essex County Hall of Records in Newark to “continue to publicly reveal the atrocities occurring inside the the Essex County Correctional Facility and the complete disregard for human lives in the care of police corrections officers being paid for by taxpayer dollars,” according to a statement from the group.
The rally will be held at noon and will also include a press conference, the group said.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
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