Hundreds Of Complaints Spur Inspections At Northern State Prison In NJ

NEWARK, NJ — A state watchdog office has released a new deep dive into a housing unit at Northern State Prison, which has allegedly seen ongoing issues since reopening nearly a year ago – including suicides, plumbing backups in the cells, complaints about medical care and constant lockdowns.

Earlier this week, the state Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson posted its latest inspection report for Northern State Prison, which is located at 168 Frontage Road in Newark. Read the full report here.

The agency took a look at the prison’s 650-bed restorative housing unit (RHU) which had been out of use for more than a year before the New Jersey Department of Corrections reopened it in December 2023.

The unit – designed as a place to hold inmates who break the prison’s rules – currently houses more than 400 people.

The Ombudsperson office found that there are several “serious conditions” that need to be addressed in the unit (see below). But inspectors also said that prison administrators and staff have been making improvements over the past year, adding that a job assignment at the RHU remains a “very challenging post for officers.”

COMPLAINTS

Just a month after the unit reopened, the ombudsperson’s office started to get complaints about living conditions. The agency fielded almost 300 calls and emails from inmates and their family members between January and April.

A series of visits to the prison followed: two announced inspections on April 4 and May 31, and an unannounced inspection on July 22.

According to the Ombudsperson office, some of the alleged issues included:

SUICIDES – “From mid-December 2023 through the end of March 2024, there were 16 security codes activated for self-harming behavior. There were also two completed suicides in the Northern State Prison RHU in March.”

PLUMBING – “Since reopening in December 2023, the RHU building at Northern State Prison has experienced recurring flooding and plumbing problems, caused in part by the aging infrastructure of the building itself and in part by objects flushed down the toilets. Across multiple inspection visits, the Ombudsperson Office observed cells with water dripping or seeping from toilets onto the floor, water leaking from pipes or dripping down the walls, sometimes onto bedding and mattresses, and as recently as the July 22 inspection, wastewater and sewage pooling on the floor of a decommissioned cell and spilling out into the hallway.”

HEALTH CARE – Medical complaints were the second-most common reason people from the RHU reached out to the Ombudsperson Office with requests for assistance. Additionally, at both the April announced inspection and the July unannounced inspection, significant numbers of people said that nurses passing out medication did not make rounds to each cell, that their sick call requests were never answered, or that they were never transported to see health care providers.”

STAFFING AND LOCKDOWNS – “Like most of the correctional facilities in the state, Northern State Prison has experienced recurring critical staffing shortages that have impacted operations in the RHU. As a temporary measure starting in April 2024, the facility administration instituted rolling lockdowns on one or more of the RHU wings each day in order to pool staff and manage daily operations on the other wings—a practice that has now become semi-permanent. Locked-down wings with more than 100 incarcerated people have minimal staffing, and people housed on a locked-down wing do not come out of their cells that day for showers, time on the kiosk, recreation, or programming.”

SMOKE AND THE COLD – “The RHU at Northern State Prison is a temperature-controlled unit, but the HVAC system shuts off as a fire suppression measure whenever sensors detect smoke, a requirement of the New Jersey Fire Code … There was a significant amount of drug use in the RHU during the winter when the building was first reopened. Staff and the population housed on the unit complained frequently about the air quality and being exposed to smoke and burning chemicals on the unit. Because the smoke often caused the heat to go out, the Ombudsperson Office also received a large volume of complaints about the cold. During a two-week period in January, for example, indoor temperatures dropped below 55°F on 11 out of 14 days. When temperatures got that cold, they stayed below 55° for an average of 9.8 hours per day. During routine tours to speak with people housed in the RHU this past winter, Ombudsperson Office staff observed people with no warm clothing and only a single thin blanket.”

HOT SUMMER – “During the Ombudsperson Office’s July 22 inspection, many of the people we interviewed complained about the summer heat, suggesting that the air conditioning was inconsistent and that indoor temperatures were often very high. The Office reviewed three weeks of daily activity logs maintained by staff in the RHU between June 17 and July 7. Indoor temperatures were 80°F or warmer on half of those days, getting as high as 88° on July 7. Hot temperatures that in other settings might be mitigated with fans or bottled water are harder to bear in the RHU where electrical outlets in three of the four building wings have been turned off to discourage smoking and where bottles of water have been prohibited as a measure to prevent incarcerated people from throwing liquids on staff.”

CLEANLINESS – “During the Ombudsperson Office’s April 4 inspection, we observed people held in cells with leaking toilets and pipes and large piles of trash, without access to cleaning supplies, soap, or regular showers. The population was not able to use fans for air circulation because the electrical outlets were turned off. A majority reported not having been given toothpaste since they arrived on the unit. Large numbers of people reported having only two pairs of underwear and having to wash them by hand in the sink. They had one set of bedsheets and few if any changes of clothes, with no laundry service or linen exchange for months.”

‘DIFFICULT AND PRACTICAL CHOICES’

The problems in the Northern State Prison RHU aren’t easy to fix, the Ombudsperson office pointed out – and it’s far from an easy job for the people who work there.

“Officers assigned to the RHU are in the unenviable position of running the unit with a population engaged in significant disruptive behavior,” the report states.

In the space of one month – March – seven security codes were called to break up fights or assaults between incarcerated people, three codes were called to respond to people throwing feces or bodily fluids on staff, seven security codes were called in response to people setting fires, and 19 security codes were called for various other disturbances (refusals to return to a cell, damaging property, etc.).

“The humiliation and repulsiveness of being assaulted with feces or bodily fluids – and the associated risks to a person’s health – are not things officers should be subjected to,” the report continues. “They are indignities and workplace hazards that make it harder to retain staff at a time when officer shortages are already quite significant.”

Meanwhile, the prison’s administrators have been responding to some of the issues raised during the recent wave of inspections, the agency reported. Many of the conditions observed by the Ombudsperson Office in the winter and early spring had been “meaningfully addressed” by summer.

“The department also took action to address drug use and mental health emergencies on the unit,” inspectors continued. “The people housed in the RHU report improved access to the phone and the grievance system, and increased access to outdoor recreation. Custody staff on the unit report a decrease in the number of security codes and assaults on staff, which is confirmed by their daily activity logs.”

Other improvements included:

INMATE HYGEINE– “The Northern State Prison administration took quick responsive action to the Office’s findings, scheduling recurring delivery of personal hygiene items, laundry, sheet exchange, and trash pick-up. During the office’s May 31 inspection, administrators and staff described these new processes and Ombudsperson Office staff members observed significant improvements in cleanliness. In interviews conducted during the July 22 unannounced inspection, people housed in the RHU confirmed that they regularly receive toilet paper, personal hygiene items, laundry service, and trash pick-up. People reported usually getting two showers per week, a notable improvement since the spring, but still short of the three-showers-per week target written in the Department’s policy and state regulations.”

BLANKETS, HEATERS AND DRUGS – “The department ultimately addressed the concerns by providing people with a second blanket, monitoring and resetting the heaters when they switched off, and consulting with vendors about their options for keeping the heat on. They also took significant steps to investigate and disrupt the flow of drugs into the RHU. Still, there were extended periods of time when people housed in the unit were exposed to very cold temperatures rather than being relocated to a building with consistent heat.”

MENTAL HEALTH – “The department made notable efforts to address the problem of people experiencing mental health crises. At both the April inspection and the July inspection, people housed in the RHU reported regular rounds made by mental health providers to see people on the special needs caseload, which includes slightly less than half of the RHU population. Following the two suicides in March, the department also dispatched a wellness officer to walk the tiers on each shift and check in on the population, and engaged a taskforce focused on self-harm which now includes a member of the Ombudsperson Office.”

Despite their efforts, it’s often like playing whack-a-mole, the report notes.

“Supervisors and administrators have made difficult and practical choices under the circumstances and addressing one problem often creates or exacerbates others,” the Ombudsperson report states.

“Disrupting drug use by turning off the electrical outlets, for example, prevents people from plugging in fans,” inspectors continue. “Deescalating disturbances to avoid unnecessary applications of force results in less time for people to get out for showers. Pooling staff to provide services on some wings requires locking down other wings.”

“The facility staff and administration have made notable and significant progress, and deserve credit and recognition for those efforts,” the report says.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The report makes four main recommendations:

• Reduce the population in the RHU
• Audit health care access in the RHU
• Set minimum standards for habitability of a prison housing unit
• Mandate data reporting

It’s also important that the prison gets more money, the Ombudsperson office suggested.

“The office further recommends that more capital funding be prioritized for repairs, renovations and new construction to ensure people are not housed in state buildings that do not meet minimum standards of habitability,” the report says.

PREVIOUS INSPECTION AT NORTHERN STATE

The recent inspections aren't the only time that the Ombudsperson office has paid a visit to Northern State Prison in the past few years.

On March 22, 2022, the agency conducted an inspection of housing unit Echo 1 East, a general population unit with a subsection of a limited privilege unit. See the results of that inspection here.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about advertising on Patch here. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site. Don’t forget to visit the Patch Newark Facebook page.