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MY WORD - 09/10/2008
(by Holly Stewart - OpEd Columnist - September 10, 2008)
Jailhouse flak
Prisons are archaic, brutal, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. – Jimmy Hoffa
Things are really heating up at the Passaic County Jail in Paterson.
For several years now, reports of deplorable living conditions for inmates have been appearing in area newspapers. Horrific tales of overcrowding, abuse and rodent infestations are common. Prisoners are frequently stacked four to eight in a cell, with less than a foot between bunks, which violates federal guidelines. There is frequently no hot water. Mold grows on walls and dust flies out of old air ducts. The prison is said to be sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter. Guards and dogs intimidate their charges on a regular basis. And there’s rat feces in the food.
Last Wednesday, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Newark’s federal court to charge that conditions in the jail may violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. It names as defendants the jail’s warden and co-warden, as well as the Passaic County Freeholders, Sheriff Jerry Speziale and NJ Corrections Commissioner George Hayman. Eight inmates were named in the suit. They are being represented pro bono by attorneys from the ACLU, Seton Hall Law’s Center for Social Justice and Dechert LLP based in Princeton. The suit directly asks a federal judge to form a panel to review conditions at the jail and decide whether the facility should be closed.
Passaic County Jail was built in 1953 and was designed to house 896 inmates. In late July of this year, it held 1,774 prisoners, although that figure has since been reduced to 1,530, according to a sheriff’s department spokesman.
In the recent past, the jail has accepted transfer prisoners from several different sources, including federal prisons, the city of Philadelphia and the INS. Overall, this has been an excellent money-making venture for the county, although Speziale was quoted on Lou Dobbs’ show that the immigration detainees weren’t worth the funds they bring in because of all the demonstrations that accompany them. The sheriff himself cancelled that program in 2006.
Two questions come to mind in light of these allegations: Firstly, should prison management take on more inmates than capacity allows in order to turn a profit? And secondly, why shouldn’t inmates in a detention center have a right to basic hygiene and cleanliness? Public response to the second question, at least according to the online comments I have read regarding the PCJ, is downright ghastly. Folks seem to think it’s good for a prison environment to be so foul that it makes you sick and that criminals deserve to live in filth. Some even think we should set up boot camps and make inmates sleep on the ground. These hardliners fail to realize that many of those in the PCJ are awaiting trial and haven’t yet been convicted of anything.
As for the first question, once you turn a detention facility into a corporation, the human element doesn’t stand a chance. The entire American penitentiary structure is flawed in this regard; in fact most U.S. prisons face overcrowding issues. The system will do whatever it has to in order to keep making dough, and more of it, if possible. The bottom line rules the decision-making process. Civil rights don’t mean a damn.
Jerry Speziale, to his credit, seems to be making some effort to improve conditions at the jail. In addition to drawing down the population in the last few months, a new air conditioning system is currently being installed. These are positive first steps. The county’s epidemiologist will visit the jail this week to investigate a recent outbreak of MRSA staph infections, which are common wherever many people live in close quarters.
There may be a number of more drastic changes in store for the Passaic County Jail, depending on how the class-action lawsuit is addressed by the federal judge. Never fear, conservative bloggers, I doubt they’ll turn it into a country club, so you can stop going on about how great it must be to workout all day and get three free meals thrown in for the ride.
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