Essex County and N.J. Prison Contractor Must Fork Out $4.8M In Back Pay: Feds

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County and Community Education Center Inc. (CEC), one of the nation’s largest providers of re-entry and in-prison treatment services, will have to fork out $4.8 million in back wages and benefits to more than 100 detention officers at Delaney Hall Center in Newark, authorities say.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that the agency found the county and CEC “failed to pay prevailing wage and overtime rates” to the officers in alleged violation of federal labor laws.

According to the DOL, workers were employed as part of a $129 million contract between Essex County and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide detention services for immigrant detainees at Delaney Hall Center in Newark.

In a move that was approved by the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the county then subcontracted to Education and Health Centers of America (EHCA) to perform work at Delaney Hall, a controversial move as the private firm reportedly has ties to Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. and Gov. Chris Christie.

The subcontracting shuffle then continued when EHCA awarded a contract to CEC.

• See related article: Essex County Freeholders Approve Immigration Detention Contract

“From Dec. 20, 2013, to May 31, 2016, [Essex County] and CEC violated the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act of 1965 by categorizing 122 detention officers improperly as operations counselors and failing to pay them the proper prevailing wage rate of $30.97 per hour required by law for that position, the investigation found,” federal officials stated in a news release. “Instead, they paid $11.29 per hour based on a prior collective bargaining agreement that was invalidated by the National Labor Relations Board in December of 2013.”

Both employers also allegedly failed to pay fringe benefits of $4.02 per hour, the required rate for detention officers, in violation of the SCA, Division of Labor officials stated. The total amount of back wages and benefits due for the SCA violations is $4,061,507.

The investigation further determined that the county and CEC violated the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act when they did not pay 116 detention officers proper overtime wages. The employers owe a total of $738,492 in back wages for this alleged violation, DOL officials said.

Read the DOL order here.

According to CEC’s website, Delaney Hall is accredited with the American Correctional Association and has a capacity of 1,196 adult males.

“Delaney Hall currently serves as a detention facility for foreign nationals, currently mostly Central Americans who were recently apprehended at the U.S. and Mexico border or nearby international airports,” a 2014 blog on humanrightsfirst.org states. “These people are not criminals. They are not incarcerated due to convictions for violent crimes or drug smuggling or the like. Instead, they have committed the civil infraction of seeking to enter the United States without authorization.”

• See related article: ICE Immigrant Detainee Dies In Essex County: Prisoner Death Toll Increases

Photo: Google Earth

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