NJ Inmate Attacks Not Investigated Due To 'Code Of Silence', Report Finds

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division failed to properly investigate officer misconduct following at least two brutal attacks on inmates, a new report from the Office of the State Comptroller revealed.

The 36-page report released Thursday detailed two cases at Bayside State Prison in Cumberland County in which correctional officers used excessive force against inmates.

In 2019, an inmate was struck in the face multiple times and wrestled to the ground despite surveillance video showing no visible provocation or threat against the correctional officer. A year earlier, another prisoner was pepper sprayed and wrestled to the ground again with no visible provocation to the officer, the report said.

In each incident, correctional officers failed to interview key eyewitnesses and the involved officers were not disciplined for use of excessive force.

The events described in the report were not isolated, according to officials.

During its investigation, the comptroller's office reviewed 46 cases involving allegations of assault, excessive force and violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act by correctional officers against inmates at three state prisons. The incidents took place between January 2018 and August 2022, officials said.

The investigation revealed that in 22 percent of the cases reviewed, the Special Investigations Division failed to conduct the "most basic investigatory step" of interviewing eyewitnesses. Additionally, the division did not recommend dispositions or clearly articulate whether the evidence substantiated an allegation.

Finally, officials found nearly 13 percent of the investigative files reviewed were missing key evidence.

"Several factors contributed to these deficiencies, including a code of silence in law enforcement, a lack of clear policies and procedures, and inadequate training," the report states.

The report's findings follow multiple documented incidents of abuse by correctional staff against inmates.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice found the New Jersey Department of Corrections failed to keep inmates at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women safe from sexual abuse by staff. The DOJ also found the Special Investigations Division failed to conduct adequate investigations into allegations of sexual abuse at the facility.

Ultimately, several correctional police officers and supervisors at Edna Mahan were criminally indicted after officers at the facility were accused of assaulting several inmates in January 2021.

In May 2023, a correctional police officer at Bayside State Prison was sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiring with others to physically assault inmates in what was deemed a kitchen "fight club."

Less than a year later, a former correctional police officer at the same facility pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of inmates after he failed to intervene in or report multiple assaults.

In the report, Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh called for the Department of Corrections to re-investigate the two incidents detailed in the report. Additionally, he called on the agency to create policies that would standardize investigations and to appoint an independent monitor to investigate other case files.

"Often these investigations were not real investigations," Walsh said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. "Some investigators were clearly just going through the motions. It’s also possible some were using their positions to protect one of their own and prevent accountability.”

In response to the report, the Department of Corrections said, "Significant changes have been implemented over the past three years to establish prison and cultural reform at all levels and units within the agency," according to NJ.com. The agency also said the comptroller’s findings "focus on a period before these reforms occurred."

"This NJDOC Administration unequivocally condemns the use of excessive force and employs a zero-tolerance approach to ensure safety, sexual safety, dignity, and rehabilitation for the population," the Department of Corrections said in a statement.