An inmate 监犯 just one day away from freedom 离自由只有一天了 who was allegedly beaten to death in his cell 据称是在牢房里被打死的 last month was one of 48 who have died in New Jersey state prisons this year.
The number represents a sharp increase from 2021, when 39 people died behind bars 在监狱服刑, but it’s down from 100 in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Amy Z. Quinn.
Since early 2017, 322 people have died in state prisons, Quinn added.
The deaths are largely due to a graying prison population and an increase in the number of incarcerated people with acute, complex medical needs, Quinn said. She did not provide a breakdown 细目列表 of causes of the deaths.
More people are dying while incarcerated nationally too. 在全国范围内，也有越来越多的人在监禁期间死亡。
incarcerated 被监禁
The Prison Policy Institute found that deaths in state prisons rose 41% from 2001 to 2018, even though the state prison population only grew by 1% during the same period. The leading cause by far is illness and “natural causes,” followed by suicide, overdose, and homicide, the group’s analysis showed.
More than 3,850 people died nationwide in state prisons or private prison facilities under a state contract in 2019, according to the most recent numbers reported by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The latest inmate to die in New Jersey was Martin Sanchez, 41, who was found unresponsive and injured in his cell at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg on Nov. 21. First responders 现场急救员 declared him dead, according to Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae.
Quinn referred questions about Sanchez’s death to Webb-McRae, who said the case remains under investigation. Criminal charges have not yet been filed.刑事指控尚未被提起。
Sanchez, who had been in custody 被拘留 for an Essex County theft case since July 2021, was scheduled to be released the day after he was killed.
He died just a few days after a former state correctional officer 狱警，监管警员；惩教人员 at Bayside, John Makos, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for allegedly assaulting inmates — and allowing inmates to assault each other 对联邦指控认罪，罪名是涉嫌袭击囚犯，并允许囚犯互相攻击— for actual or perceived violations of prison rules and customs between April and December 2019.
Those assaults occurred in the prison’s kitchen in areas out of sight of surveillance cameras, 这些袭击发生在监狱的厨房里，在监控摄像头看不到的地方 according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In one incident, Makos watched and didn’t intervene干预 when multiple inmates pinned 按住; 使不能动弹 another to the floor and punched him about 25 times — and didn’t report the attack to supervisors or medical staff as required, according to the office. Makos faces up to 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced in March.
Prison workers were not involved in Sanchez’s assault, and a correctional officer tried unsuccessfully to revive 使苏醒 him, said William Sullivan, president of New Jersey Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 105, which represents correctional officers.
State data shows that assaults on incarcerated people committed by other inmates aren’t uncommon in the system. At least 155 have been reported so far this year, up from 108 last year and the most in at least five years, state data shows.
WASHINGTON – 3 survivors of sexual assault 性侵犯；性暴行 in federal prison described years of horrific abuse by prison staffers who used their unfettered 不受限制的access to vulnerable inmates and threatened them with retaliation if they reported the attacks.
All three former inmates, their voices cracking with emotion 声音因激动而嘶哑, told a Senate investigative panel Tuesday that the federal Bureau of Prisons had failed 辜负them and often shielded their attackers from accountability. 保护攻击者不被追究责任。
One of the victims, Linda De La Rosa, told the committee, which has been investigating the sexual abuse of federal inmates for the past eight months, that her attacker had full access to her personal files and used the information to gain leverage over her. 攻击她的人可以完全访问她的个人文件并利用这些信息来控制她。
"My life was a living hell 我的生活就像人间地狱," De La Rosa told lawmakers, describing the abuse that started in 2019 and involved at least 3 other inmates at a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky.
The attacker was later charged and is now serving a 135-month prison sentence, but De La Rosa said the officer had been previously accused of sexual offenses against other inmates when he was stalking 骚扰; 纠缠 and attacking her.
Senate committee Chairman Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said the investigation also concluded that the Bureau of Prisons system has so far proved incapable of detecting and preventing such attacks. 到目前为止，监狱管理局系统已被证明无法发现和预防此类袭击。
"This situation is intolerable 这种情况是无法容忍的," Ossoff said. "It is cruel and unusual punishment."
The panel's inquiry is yet another assessment of the agency's systemic failure to ensure the safety of inmates, especially women.
Last week, a former warden 看守人；典狱官 of a California federal prison, known as the "rape club," was convicted on 8 criminal counts for his abuse of 3 inmates.
Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters, in an interview this week with USA TODAY, said Justice Department officials are considering the early release 提早释放 of inmates who were victims of the warden and other staffers at the prison.
"I am open to this consideration that is a very complex issue, which is why it’s under pretty significant review,” Peters told USA TODAY. “I think we’re concerned about consistency, I think we’re concerned about fairness, and so I think that each case is unique.”
The testimony of the former inmates, however, represented a powerful condemnation of the agency's past response to such abuse, while the committee reported that the internal investigations unit is plagued by a backlog of 8,000 investigations including hundreds of sexual assault claims.
Peters was appointed as the agency's director in August following years of near-constant turmoil in which staffers' incompetence or misconduct also factored into the 2018 prison murder of mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger and the 2019 suicide of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
At Tuesday's hearing, Peters said she was "horrified" by the accounts of sexual abuse.
"We must train all bureau employees on their obligation to report misconduct 我们必须培训所有公务员，让他们有义务举报不当行为," the director told lawmakers, adding that rogue staffers 流氓员工 would be "fettered out" and removed from their positions.
The emotional testimony of the former inmates, however, drew most of the committee's focus.
Briane Moore, a former inmate at a prison in Alderson, West Virginia, tearfully described how a captain raped her multiple times, while threatening to deny her appeals to transfer to a facility closer to family.
"While he was raping me, he was raping other women," Moore said. "I'm still suffering. This has changed the course of my life我仍然很痛苦。这改变了我的人生轨迹。."
Carolyn Richardson, a former inmate in New York, said an officer preyed on her as she suffered from deteriorating eye sight, often threatening to withhold food and medical care as he forced himself on her.
Richardson said the officer regularly visited her cell a night, shining a flashlight to indicate his arrival.
"I felt utterly powerless," Richardson said.
Waterloo regional police say a correctional officer at a women’s prison in Kitchener has been arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting an inmate. 一名狱警因涉嫌性侵一名囚犯而被捕。
Police say staff at Grand Valley Institution for Women called police in April 2022, to report “a sexual relationship involving a correctional officer and an inmate.”
An investigation was launched and on December 9, 2022, police made an arrest.
A 43-year-old man from Cambridge is facing charges of sexual assault and breach of trust. 正面临性侵犯和背信指控。
Police have not named the suspect. He will appear in court on January 9, 2023.
Police say the investigation is ongoing.
On its website, Correctional Service Canada says Grand Valley Institution, which opened in 1997, is one of six federal facilities for women across Canada.
It has a capacity for 215 minimum and medium-security inmates.
Widespread sexual abuse of female inmates continues to plague federal prisons and accountability measures for staff have not contained the scourge of such violence, according to a Senate investigative report released Tuesday. 联邦监狱继续普遍存在对女犯人的性侵，对工作人员的问责措施未能遏制此类暴力事件的发生。
Women were abused by prison staff in at least 19 of the 29 federal facilities that held female inmates since 2012, the bipartisan report from the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found. The Bureau of Prisons opened 5,415 cases alleging sexual abuse by federal employees from 2012 to 2022.
Former inmate and survivor Briane Moore testified before the subcommittee on Tuesday, recounting how she was raped by an officer while she was imprisoned at a federal facility in West Virginia. She said the officer, a captain at the prison, would take her to private areas of the facility to abuse her out of sight of surveillance cameras.
"I knew he had the power to prevent me from being transferred to a prison closer to my family closer to my daughter," Moore said. "He was a captain with total control over me. I had no choice but to obey."
She said that she feared getting placed in solitary confinement被单独监禁 if she tried to report the officer and was aware of other women who were punished for reporting abuse.
The slow pace of accountability for inmate sexual abuse, combined with limited resources for internal investigators, puts inmates at continued risk 对囚犯性侵的问责步伐缓慢，加上内部调查人员的资源有限，使囚犯面临持续的风险, the report found. The Bureau of Prisons' Office of Internal Affairs has a case backlog of about 8,000, some of which have been pending for more than 5 years.
The investigative panel, a part of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is led by Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has focused on prison abuse and misconduct.
"This situation is intolerable," Ossoff said at Tuesday's hearing "Sexual abuse of inmates is a gross abuse of human and constitutional rights and cannot be tolerated by the United States Congress. It is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and basic standards of human decency."
Briane Moore, formerly incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, testifies during the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, on Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Federal Prisons, on Capitol...Show more
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters, who was appointed in July, appeared at the hearing and was asked by Ossoff why the bureau hasn't made systemic changes to prevent abuse, given the volume of alleged and corroborated complaints.
"I wish I had a good answer to that question," Peters said. "What I can tell you is that when you look at the institutions that you're highlighting -- and you see an institution that has been riveted with cases it's it's hard to explain -- it's hard to understand how systemic changes were not implemented."
Peters said she has worked since her appointment to inspect prisons and transition from prior Bureau of Prisons leadership. Citing reports of abuse by prison leaders, she called it "absolutely egregious," nothing that extreme power differences while in custody make it impossible for inmates to consent to sex with law enforcement.
MORE: DOJ watchdog finds 'serious' problems in handling of 'Whitey' Bulger prison transfer
"I welcome accountability and oversight and I welcome this hearing," Peters said. "We must come to this work with our arms wide open."
Peters said she will aim to improve internal surveillance systems and introduce body cameras as long as there's sufficient funding in place from Congress.
Linda De La Rosa, formerly incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, testifies during the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, on Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Federal Prisons, on Capitol...Show more
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Earlier this year, Ossoff led a Senate panel exposing corruption and misconduct at a federal penitentiary in Georgia. At the time, he said prison staff allowed massive amounts of contraband 走私品 to flow into the facilities.
"Contraband is the beginning of sexual assault," Peters said on Tuesday, adding that cell phones are often used to coordinate prison crimes between inmates and are a major threat to security.
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During her initial testimony, Moore expressed regret for the drug offense that landed her in prison. She explained that after having a daughter at age 17, she was looking for extra money and began selling crack cocaine.
"I'm not an activist or someone who's normally -- who would normally use my voice like I am today," Moore told the panel. "Speaking about my experience in such a public setting is incredibly hard. I'm willing to do so because other women are still in prison and I am out. I hope that they will not have to go through what I went through."在这样的公共场合讲述我的经历是非常困难的。我愿意这么做，因为其他女人还在监狱里，而我出来了。我希望他们不会经历我所经历的一切
