Letters about Essex County, NJ

Essex County Jail Will Never Be Safe Until We Stop Profiting Off Black and Brown Bodies
Jim Price
Published: 12/23/2021
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
Civilian OversightCriminal Justice ReformEssex County CommissionersEssex County, NJICEJail Reform
Governor, please sign this bill
Jim Price
Published: 08/10/2021
The bill is a first step in getting the counties out of the "profit by incarceration” business. The people being held in immigrant detention are not being charged with any crimes; there is no reason to keep them in jail. Read More
ICEBergen County, NJEssex County, NJHudson County, NJPhil MurphyImmigration
We Need Gov. Murphy to Support the Essex-Hudson Greenway
Ed Jones
Published: 07/30/2021
But to make this greenway happen, the various local players have to work together—and quickly—before Norfolk Southern Corporation sells the property in pieces. As the Star-Ledger editorial argues, Gov. Murphy needs to take the lead to create a plan to buy the land and create “our own High Line” as Sen. Teresa Ruiz put it. Read More
Essex-Hudson GreenwayTeresa RuizPhil MurphyEssex County, NJHudson County, NJEnvironmentGreen Space
Pressure Politicians, Don’t Blame Immigrant Justice Advocates
Whitney Strub
Published: 07/09/2021
Instead of disparaging those who are fighting for immigrant justice, Mr. Moran should be screaming from the rafters at those who can influence policy. Read More
Tom MoranBergen County, NJEssex County, NJHudson County, NJICEImmigration
Tell Your Representatives, Releases Not Transfers When NJ ICE Contracts Are Ended
Elizabeth Redwine
Published: 07/09/2021
Many worked to end Essex County’s contract with ICE, but now the federal government is taking the draconian step of moving those ICE detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility to detention centers in the Deep South including Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. Read More
Bergen County, NJCory BookerElizabeth, NJEssex County CommissionersEssex County, NJHudson County, NJICEImmigrationJoe BidenPhil MurphyRobert MenendezUniversal RepresentationUS SenateUS Congress
NJ Must Act to Stop ICE's Inhumane Treatment of Immigrants
Jim Price
Published: 06/27/2021
The opportunists who control both parties need to do better and come up with a path to citizenship for all. The current system—or lack of one—is deeply inhumane. Read More
ImmigrationICEPhil MurphyBergen County, NJEssex County, NJHudson County, NJ
Threats to Our Local Parks
Bill Beren
Published: 06/08/2021
Four bills are under consideration by the NJ Legislature that would force all Counties and Municipalities in the state to adopt Forest Stewardship Plans (FSP’s) for publicly owned and managed woodlands covering 25 or more acres. FSP’s, as the draft resolution explains, are essentially a plan for mandating logging and controlled burns meant to prevent forest fires. Read More
Britnee TimberlakeEssex County, NJMontclairThomas GiblinGreen AcresEnvironmentNia Gill
We Must Not Balance Budgets with Blood Money
Laura Morowitz
Published: 05/18/2021
Rather than releasing these innocent people to await their fair hearings, other facilities and counties in other places are already rubbing their hands with glee, imagining how they too might profit on the backs of these people, eager to earn a little more blood money by receiving these new prisoners. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigration
We Must Support Bills Forbidding ICE Contracts
Jim Price
Published: 04/01/2021
Since 2008, Essex has imprisoned immigrants for ICE; this year the contract will be worth approximately $40 million. These people are all being held in civil detention which means that they have not been charged with any crime. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationRobert MenendezNia Gill
North Jersey Counties Show A Unique Support For ICE
Anthony Lioi
Published: 11/27/2020
While some might see this merely as a bid to gain more federal funding, the decision goes beyond cost-benefit analysis. It is an expression of a bipartisan consensus that detention and deportation of immigrants promote national security. Read More
Hudson County, NJBudgetBergen County, NJFederal FundingTaxesImmigrationICEEssex County, NJNorth Jersey
Hudson And Essex County Need To Stop Enabling ICE
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 11/24/2020
There is no justification for the implementation of cruel policies like incarcerating children and not only separating them from their parents but also losing the information to make their reunification impossible. That is criminal. Let’s embrace humanity and separate us from cruelty. Read More
Bergen County, NJImmigrationICEHudson County, NJEssex County, NJ
Can Essex County's ICE contract really be helping detainees?
Jim Price
Published: 10/04/2020
The Commissioners should stop pretending that immigrant detention is helping the immigrants. It’s not. The county should also stop collaborating with Trump and ICE. Crossing a border in hope for a better life should not be illegal. No one is illegal on stolen land. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoTaxes
In response to “In defense of the police” letter to the editor from August 20, 2020
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 08/26/2020
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
Criminal Justice ReformEducationCivilian Complaint Review BoardEssex County, NJJail ReformMontclairYouth JusticeJail ReformNewark, NJDefund the PolicePolicing
Essex County Freeholder Resolution on Prisoners of ICE Just a First Step
Jim Price
Published: 06/12/2020
The resolution will prove meaningless if the freeholders don’t publicly put pressure on both ICE and County Executive Joe DiVincenzo to comply with the resolution. Comply, as in release them to their families and communities, not transfer them to some other jurisdiction that complains less. And when the pandemic ends, leave them free. Read More
COVID-19Donald TrumpEssex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzo
Freeholders Need To Stop Making Excuses and Collaborating With Trump’s Attacks On Our Immigrant Communities
Whitney Strub
Published: 06/01/2020
So why the reluctance to support a necessary and urgent humanitarian resolution, as COVID-19 continues to endanger the lives of detainees and jail inmates? Here’s one hypothesis: this is what happens to your moral compass when you fund an already-wealthy county through immigrant detention, as Essex, Hudson, and Bergen counties all do. Read More
Brendan GillCOVID-19Essex County, NJICEImmigrationPatricia SeboldRobert MercadoCarlos Pomares
Supporting the Release of Prisoners of ICE
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 05/22/2020
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
Brendan GillCOVID-19Criminal Justice ReformEssex County, NJICEImmigrationJail Reform
We knew it would happen.
Laura Morowitz
Published: 05/03/2020
Last Monday Freeholder President Gill publicly stated that he will introduce a non-binding resolution to release all non-violent detainees. We are watching to see if this happens, and if it passes, or whether the Freeholders continue to abdicate their responsibilities, allowing innocent human beings to die while collecting millions from ICE to hold them against their will. Read More
Brendan GillCOVID-19Essex County, NJImmigrationICEJoe DiVincenzo
Can the "Best Jail" Label Stand Up to Basic Scrutiny?
Jim Price
Published: 05/01/2020
We understand that Joe D cannot release anyone on his own say-so, only ICE has the authority. But there is nothing stopping him or his freeholders from publicly calling on ICE to release the detainees. Read More
COVID-19Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoPhil Murphy
We Need To Push The Freeholders To Improve Conditions at Essex County Jail
Elizabeth Redwine
Published: 04/24/2020
It is our responsibility as residents of Essex County and New Jersey to ensure that the freeholders hear us and improve conditions at the Essex County jail for detainees. Read More
Essex County, NJImmigrationCOVID-19
We Need Negative Testing Numbers From County Jails
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 04/10/2020
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
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJail ReformCOVID-19North JerseyCriminal Justice Reform
Will County Exec Joe DiVincenzo's COVID-19 Infection Help Him Hear The Calls To Decarcerate?
Anthony Lioi
Published: 04/03/2020
"For everyone held captive by ICE, the threat of an outbreak of COVID-19 has been terrifying." Read More
Criminal Justice ReformEssex County, NJICEImmigrationJail ReformJoe DiVincenzoCOVID-19
Free The Civil Detainees
Jim Price
Published: 03/15/2020
The county could take one further step towards public safety by temporarily freeing the 800 immigrants that it currently holds in civil detention in the Newark jail. This is civilian, not criminal detention; they are not currently being held under any criminal charges. Read More
ImmigrationICEEssex County, NJ
Essex Freeholders Must Release Civil ICE Detainees
Whitney Strub
Published: 03/11/2020
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
Criminal Justice ReformEssex County, NJICEHealthcareImmigrationJail ReformJoe DiVincenzo
Freeholders Support Both Animals And People In Cages
Devika Gupta
Published: 02/29/2020
A supposedly progressive Board of Freeholders repeatedly follows the agenda of local politicians who are not accountable to the people who voted for them. Many residents and students have recently protested the zoo expansion, while calls to end the local ICE contracts have been ongoing for many years. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoSouth Mountain ReservationTurtle Back Zoo
When Does the Moral Cost of the ICE Dollars Exceed the Value Of Our Improved Zoo And Parks?
Kristin Shea
Published: 02/10/2020
As I enjoy these spaces, which are undoubtedly assets to our community I can’t help but think of the immigrant from Honduras who was arrested by, ICE for outstanding traffic warrants, awaiting deportation in the grimmest industrial site in Essex County. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationTurtle Back ZooSouth Mountain ReservationJoe DiVincenzo
Turtle Back Zoo Should Be Shrinking Out Of Respect to Animals, Instead Joe D Is Trying To Make it Larger
Jim Price
Published: 02/06/2020
The zoo’s footprint has doubled in the past ten years to 40 acres including McLoone’s Restaurant and a mini-golf course. Read More
Essex County, NJJoe DiVincenzoSouth Mountain ReservationTurtle Back Zoo
When Will The Turtle Back Zoo Stop Encroaching On The South Mountain Reservation?
Elizabeth Redwine
Published: 01/31/2020
In our current climate crisis and with many students voicing their informed opinion that parading animals in front of a 500 person amphitheater is not the way to educate young people about conservation, residents deserve an answer: when does this stop Read More
Essex County, NJJoe DiVincenzoSouth Mountain ReservationTurtle Back ZooClimate Change
2020 Is Not Only About The Election, It Is Also a Census Year
Rebecca Sheer
Published: 01/10/2020
The good news: Essex County has received $417K from the state for Census outreach. Now, we need to know how the County Executive Office plans to spend it Read More
CensusEssex County, NJ
Essex Jail Task Force work is just beginning
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 12/27/2019
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
Brendan GillEssex County, NJJoe DiVincenzoICEJail ReformCriminal Justice ReformCivilian Oversight
Booker's New Stance on Essex County's ICE Contract Misses the Mark
Robert Yuen Latz
Published: 11/29/2019
Nationwide, immigrant detainees are seldom represented, and they have drastically better outcomes when they are. Read More
Cory BookerEssex County, NJICEImmigrationCory BookerJoe DiVincenzoUniversal Representation
A civilian task force is not justice
Nate Hutchinson
Published: 11/27/2019
A more humane jail is better than a jail in which inmates are sexually assaulted and served rotten food, but this should not be confused with justice. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzo
We need to destroy their corrupt machines root and branch
Whitney Strub
Published: 11/25/2019
In short, they don’t need to say out loud what Biden so gracelessly said; they embody it in their actions by holding progressives captive to the Democratic Party and its machines, knowing we won’t vote Republican. Read More
Joe BidenDrivers Licenses for AllEssex County, NJICESteve SweeneyJoe DiVincenzo
Essex Exec, Joe D, needs to engage his constituents
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 11/16/2019
The Essex County Executive, Joe DiVincenzo, and his Chief of Staff, Phil Alagia, don't seem to be taking the Jail Task Force ordinance, or their responsibilities, seriously. Read More
Essex County, NJJoe DiVincenzoPhil AlagiaBrendan Gill
Elected Officials Should Listen
Devika Gupta
Published: 11/16/2019
Activists have raised two issues in NJ that demand immediate action from our elected officials. Read More
ICEEssex County, NJDrivers Licenses for AllImmigration
Essex's Immigration problem isn't Trump's fault
Nate Hutchinson
Published: 10/18/2019
Essex County holds nearly 1,000 ICE detainees, but this was not forced on us by Trump; this was the county’s choice. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoDonald Trump