NJ Corrections Officer Imprisoned For Conspiring In Assaults Of Inmates

LEESBURG, NJ — A South Jersey corrections officer who participated in several assaults at Bayside State Prison must head back to the big house — as an inmate.

A federal judge sentenced John Makos on Wednesday to 30 months' imprisonment for conspiring with others to deprive inmates of their right to not get subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Makos pleaded guilty to the federal offense last November.

From April through December 2019, Makos allowed and watched over the assaults of certain victims for actual and perceived violations of the Leesburg, Cumberland County, facility's rules and customs, according to federal authorities.

The assaults at the embattled prison occurred while Makos supervised the inmates who fell victim and in areas of the kitchen outside of surveillance cameras' sight. In one instance, Makos watched as several inmates pinned another to the floor and punched the victim about 25 times, according to court documents.

The assaults resulted in injuries.

"Corrections officers are responsible for protecting the civil rights of the people in their custody," said U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, of the District of New Jersey. "Incarcerated persons may have broken the law, but equal treatment is one of our country’s founding principles, and civil rights do not cease to exist at a prison's gates."

Along with the prison term, Makos was sentenced to three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.

Makos, 42, of Millville, is also named in a lawsuit brought by former inmates detailing the excessive use of force and violent environment in Bayside State Prison, according to an NJ.com report.

The Bayside prison has been subject to controversy in recent years. The facility contained a hefty portion of New Jersey prisons that lacked air conditioning last summer. Fifty-eight percent of Bayside's beds lacked air conditioning, with temperatures inside the cells reaching up to 91 degrees, according to a report from the New Jersey Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson.

• Read more: NJ Prison Hit 94 Degrees As Inmates, Officers Lacked Air Conditioning

In 2020, a video on social media showed a group of men — one of whom was Joseph DeMarco, a Bayside corrections officer — mocking protesters in Gloucester County and re-enacting the murder of George Floyd. The state fired DeMarco, with the Department of Corrections calling the incident "hateful and disappointing. Gov. Phil Murphy called the group's actions "repugnant."

A former Bayside inmate, Bruce Duette, was charged with murder in March — months after a man was found dead in the facility, the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office said. On Nov. 21, officials found Martin Sanchez unresponsive in his cell, with apparent trauma to his head and face, authorities said. Medical personnel pronounced the 41-year-old dead shortly thereafter.

Duette is now incarcerated at a different facility — New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.