These deficiencies remained when the county depopulated the jail of people that the county was profiting from through the contract with ICE. The recent near fatal beating of Jayshawn Boyd as well as the stabbing death of Dan Gelin were tragically avoidable, but they are also evidence that the ICE contract was not the problem. The problem is that the county views the people in the jail as less than human. Read More

There are plenty of those women held in Edna Mahan that deserve to be freed and not transferred to another facility. Most incarcerated women are there for drug related crimes and non-violent crimes. More than 50% of incarcerated women are single moms and primary caregivers. Read More

Traffic stops are overwhelmingly safe for police officers — they are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed during a traffic stop. So why is there so much violence by officers during traffic stops? Systemic, racist disparities make it so Black motorists are stopped more often. Black people are also more likely to be shot and killed by police. The two taken together create a substantial risk for our Black neighbors. Read More

In general, incarcerated women were girls who suffered trauma or were institutionalized before being sent to prison. We failed them before. Let's not fail them again. Read More

Since their inception these bills have been about racial justice. We now have white, connected politicians making it about them. Read More

Instead this kind of blind defense in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the cruelty and misuse of lethal power on the part of some officers, only convinces us that there IS a systematic problem that MUST be covered up at all costs Read More

Also, as Angela Davis says: Prisons don’t disappear social problems they disappear human beings.” We need to stop feeding the system. Police departments and police officers have a huge responsibility, they are the “gatekeepers”. Police departments can be part of the solution on the reduction of prison population. Read More

There is no more time and there are no more lives to spare. Let us not try another wave of police reform that will not work. Divest from punitiveness and invest in services for the community. We know how to take care of each other. Let us start a new era. Read More

After the pandemic, we must refuse to go back. We must commit to helping communities, supporting and funding them sooner rather than over-incarcerating residents later. We need to build community not tear it apart and incarcerate the pieces. Read More

According to ACLU NJ, New Jersey has the highest rate of prison deaths in the country, more than NY, CT, PA and MA combined. 544 prisoners, 600 correctional officers tested positive and 42 prisoners died. Read More

It's now too late to prevent widespread infection and death in our county jails. But these are our prisoners, your prisoners, my prisoners. We must hold our officials accountable. Read More

"For everyone held captive by ICE, the threat of an outbreak of COVID-19 has been terrifying." Read More

With Coronavirus threatening to devastate vulnerable populations in prisons and jails (where ICE detainees are held in Newark, despite being under technically civil detention), it is a moral imperative that Joe D and the freeholders overcome their lucrative complicity in immigrant detention and publicly demand that ICE release its detainees before catastrophe strikes. Read More

Citizens must push hard for good representatives to be added to the Task Force so that it can work as intended: ensuring fair and equitable conditions for all prisoners, detainees, and staff. Read More