UPDATE: As of March 20th, some county jail inmates have been released in an effort to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. However, immigrant detainees still remain, held in increasingly deadly conditions.
We ask all readers to stand in solidarity with these innocent and suffering men, and raise your voice for justice. Let others know of this injustice, and help us contact those responsible for this — the Democratic Party leaders of Northern New Jersey, including Governor Phil Murphy; Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker; Representatives Albio Sires, Josh Gottheimer, Tom Malinowski, Mikie Sherill, & Donald Payne, Jr.; & the many Freeholders of Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties along with the County Executives.
To: Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo
Office of the County Executive
Hall of Records, Room 405
465 Dr Martin Luther King Blvd
Newark, NJ 07102
Protect Public Health! Parole All Immigrant Detainees and Non-Violent Offenders NOW!
To protect public health in the face of the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic we demand that YOU — Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo — and County Executives in other counties use your executive powers to immediately parole those charged or convicted of non-violent crimes and all immigrant detainees — all held on civil charges — imprisoned under contracts with the Immigrant and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, the Elizabeth (NJ) Contract Detention Facility, and all those around the state and country.
Mr DiVincenzo, as you must know, prisons and jails are breeding grounds for viruses. Dr. Ranit Mishori, senior medical adviser at the Physicians for Human Rights, has said it was only a matter of time before the coronavirus infiltrates prisons and detention centers. Already a corrections officer at the Bergen County jail has tested positive for the deadly virus.
The Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF), where a series of reports over the last decade have documented the facility’s unsanitary conditions, is particularly vulnerable. The latest, a 2019 study by the Department Homeland Security (DHS), found that the jail’s “Food Safety Issues Endanger Detainee Health” and “Facility Conditions Present Risks to Detainee Health and Safety.” Despite reassurances by officials, reports by detainees and advocates confirm that these unsanitary continue, threatening the health and wellbeing of the detainees AND the general public.
The detainees you imprison have not been tried and sentenced for a crime. They are held unconstitutionally on civil charges. Yet by herding them together in a time of pandemic the Counties and ICE are condemning many of them to serious illness or even death by coronavirus.
To protect the lives of prisoners who were sentenced for crimes, Iran paroled 54,000 prisoners to avoid spreading the virus. Will Essex County and New Jersey collaborate with ICE to treat the detainees and non-violent offenders far more inhumanely?
To protect the health of the detainees and the general public, the detainees and non-violent offenders must be paroled NOW!
Endorsers: Jobs and Equal Rights for All Campaign; Haiti Solidarity Network/NE; Northern New Jersey Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America; New Jersey Industrial Union Council; Radical Women; Freedom Socialist Party; Occupy Bergen County; Central Unitarian Church Social Action Team; Close The Camps- New Jersey; Jews Against ICE- New Jersey; Close The Camps- Elizabeth, New Jersey; Never Again Action, NJ