Another prison officer was assaulted on Sunday evening, resulting from uncontrolled gang activity at the Essex County jail, reports Joe Amato, president of PBA Local 382. Amato says officers assigned on these housing units under the failed theory of direct supervision are nothing more than sitting ducks and recreational targets for the inmates aggressions.
The latest assault also brings attention to the substandard design of the cells locking mechanisms which oddly enough allows inmates to have total control of their doors and easily manipulate the locking process. Its the opinion of the PBA that inmates are using this glitch in the locking system as away to set up or lure officers into a confrontation.
...while locking inmates in for the night, the officer was checking his cell doors to make sure they were all locked when the officer was brutally attacked by the inmates who had manipulated the locking process. The officer, who was rendered unconscious for part of the assault remembers that the inmates assigned to this particular cell tried to pull him into the cell, but he successfully fought off the inmates attempts. A further struggle ensued and the officer ended up being kicked and punched in the face and head and suffered major head injuries. As of Monday night, the injured officer was in the Intensive Care Unit of a local hospital.
Amato says a full report sent this April to all state and local authorities has been ignored. According to Amato, the PBA will continue their written complaints to all federal state and local authoritative agencies and plan to hold public demonstrations.
Comments (12)
sooner or later the mismanagement of this county is going to catch up with JoeyD. It is a pity that there has been collateral damage.
He should have just shot them all. (Heaven forbid, that would be UNacceptible, & not politically pretty! Ha, sick "rules" from the 1920s they are ordered to ABIDE BY
Pop, will you stop it!
Kev,
Nah! Nothin' a few well placed doggie runs won't fix...
why was one officer patrolling alone? I thought they moved among the pods in pairs. And, there was supposed to be a central desk on each floor which monitored the locks.
well, the jail was three years late and $200mn over budget, so I guess we can't expect that it actually works...
My husband is a corrections officer at this jail and he says that he is regularly alone on a pod conducting "direct supervision". Even though they say that there are "only" 32 inmates on each pod, he says that there are 64 with ine office. The other officers are in a room with TV cameras watching all of the pods but can't really help if an emergency happens because there is no group of officers assigned to helping in an emergency like they had at the old jail and the inmates know it. As far as I am concerned, even though my husband is big, strong, fit and trained, even just 2 or 3 inmates could seriously hurt him or worse if they chose to and I am terrified for him everyday he goes to work.
Wasn't it about 6 months ago that another officer reported that the inmates could beat the locks?
http://www.baristanet.com/barista/2006/03/whistleblower_s.html
Joe D. & Company took the time to suspend the officer for daring to report such a thing but apparently couldn't be bothered FIXING the problem before someone got seriously hurt.
Now the taxpayers have the whistleblower lawsuit to pay for AND the negligence suit that the injured officer will undoubtedly bring against the County....and rightfully so.
"...but apparently couldn't be bothered FIXING the problem before someone got seriously hurt."
The doggie run promotion circuit makes serious time demands...
Shoot em? Public televised execution for the terrorist inmates is my preference. Cost overruns, lawsuits, indeed!
He is a good officer if you do your job the inmates want to kill you
Time for off duty pickets at Joe Ds house speaking engagements etc. There was a time off duty COs even picketed a restuarant wherein the County Exec was having dinner with his "girlfriend"!. Guess who won that one...
Shoot em? Public televised execution for the terrorist inmates is my preference. Cost overruns, lawsuits, indeed!
I've often thought that a guillotine mounted on a flatbed truck would do the job.
Bring it to the scene of the crime, and, post conviction, execute the guy where he did the deed.
Of course, that means convicting them, which isn't a sure thing in Essex County.