Officers beat, pepper-sprayed inmates unprovoked and weren’t disciplined, report says
A New Jersey corrections officer broke his hand in 2019 while beating an incarcerated man who didn’t fight back in an incident that should be reviewed for excessive force, a new report recommends.
The recommendation was also made for an incident that happened at the same prison the year before in 2018, when a corrections officer pepper-sprayed an inmate who didn’t pose a physical threat, according to the report issued June 6 by the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller.
Surveillance footage shows both officers attacking the inmates, unprovoked, at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, the report says.
The officers never faced discipline — but the incarcerated men did, according to the report.
Both officers gave similar explanations to justify their actions, saying the inmates made verbal threats against them, according to a news release from the comptroller.
However, this couldn’t be confirmed through surveillance footage, which lacks audio, and those who witnessed the encounters weren’t interviewed, according to the report.
The comptroller’s report — which involved a review of 46 cases of officers accused of abuse at Bayside and two other state prisons from January 2018 through August 2022 — found the state Department of Corrections “failed to conduct thorough and fair investigations,” the release said.
“Often these investigations were not real investigations,” Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh said in a statement.
The footage of the two attacks at Bayside
A video published by the comptroller first shows footage of the 2019 incident involving the corrections officer, who wasn’t identified in the report, punching an incarcerated man at Bayside.
It begins with the man speaking to the officer, who was sitting at his desk, while he’s standing behind a security line that inmates aren’t supposed to cross, the report says.
He is seen removing a lanyard from his neck in the video before the officer walks up to him. He wasn’t allowed to wear a lanyard under prison policy, according to the report.
When the officer approaches the man, he is seen in the footage taking a step back.
Then, the officer begins punching him in the head and forces him to the floor, the video shows.
The man didn’t show “any type of physically threatening behavior,” but the officer used “so much force that the two ended up on the other side of the room,” the report says.
In the incident from 2018, footage shows two officers sitting at a desk as an incarcerated man stands in front of them from behind a security line.
One of the officers suddenly gets up and pepper-sprays the inmate, the video shows.
Then the officer is seen tackling him to the ground.
The inmate didn’t show any “physical aggression” before he was attacked, the report says.
Following both incidents, the officers said the inmates threatened them — resulting in the men facing disciplinary charges, according to the report.
“Most of the charges were dismissed by hearing officers for insufficient evidence, which suggests the hearing officers did not believe the subject officers’ statements,” the report says.
Cases at the prison should be reexamined
The comptroller’s report found that in 22% of the 46 case files reviewed, no eyewitnesses were interviewed when an officer was accused of abuse against an incarcerated person, and “key evidence” was missing in 13% of the cases, the release said.
The report recommends that the state DOC “should re-open and reexamine” the two Bayside cases.
“At the conclusion of the investigations, DOC should institute any appropriate employee discipline and refer and share any evidence with prosecutorial authorities as appropriate,” the report says.
Corrections officers at Bayside State Prison have been previously accused of facilitating, and taking part in, abuse against incarcerated individuals, according to federal court documents reported on by McClatchy News.
In February, former Bayside corrections officer Joshua Hand pleaded guilty to depriving two inmates of their right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
The federal charges stem from December 2019, when Hand watched, but didn’t intervene, as two inmates were beaten on the same day, prosecutors said.
During one of the incidents, another officer, John Makos, beat an inmate “without provocation,” according to court filings.
Last year, Makos was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on a charge of conspiring with others to deprive inmates of their right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, prosecutors said in a May 2023 news release .
The individuals who investigated the two Bayside incidents told the comptroller’s office they “should have interviewed witnesses,” and with one “saying officers ‘like to stick to each other’s stories,’” according to the comptroller’s release.
This story was originally published June 11, 2024 at 6:01 AM with the headline "Officers beat, pepper-sprayed inmates unprovoked and weren’t disciplined, report says."
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