michael o. allen

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, April 30, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B01

Inmates who have testified in the federal lawsuit that seeks to reduce overcrowding at the Bergen County Jail are being targeted for retaliation by state and county corrections authorities, the state Inmate Advocacy Office claims.

The office cited a charge brought by the Department of Corrections against Gary Jones a week ago for his Feb. 7 testimony that detailed how he led a hunger strike to protest food service in the jail a month earlier. Two other inmates involved in the protest, Karl Meisenbach and Gregory Cannell, also filed complaints with the advocacy office.

Director of Inmate Advocacy Nancy Feldman said her office has investigated reports of harassment of inmate-witnesses.

“Obviously we are very concerned that there not be intimidation,” she said. “The witnesses have rights to testify and there should not be retaliation against them for that.”

“Absolutely ludicrous,” Sheriff Jack Terhune said of the allegations.

Terhune said that neither Cannell nor Meisenbach complained to his department and that the Inmate Advocacy Office failed to inform his office of the complaints.

Patricia Mulcahy, a Corrections Department spokeswoman, denied that the charge brought against Jones amounted to retaliation.

“The Department of Corrections does not retaliate against anyone. It’s all based on the evidence,” Mulcahy said. The evidence used against Jones was culled from the transcript of his testimony in the hearing, she added.

The state charged Jones with inciting a riot and sentenced him to 15 days in detention and 365 days in administrative segregation, and docked him 365 days of time off that he had earned for good behavior, Mulcahy said. The state also plans to send the case to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office for possible indictment, she added. Jones is serving five years for burglary.

Feldman said the only reason the department charged Jones was his testimony.

“We are not happy about this,” she said. “We don’t think it is right. We are evaluating Mr. Jones situation [and] the Department of Corrections action to decide how we can be most effective in helping him.”

Meisenbach on Tuesday told a special master who is holding fact-finding hearings on the lawsuit that corrections officers incensed over his Feb. 7 testimony were trying to set him up to look like a “snitch.” He asked Tuesday to be moved to a state prison out of fear of violence from other inmates. Meisenbach said Tuesday that although he felt it was the right thing to do, he regretted having testified in February.

In Cannell’s case, a homemade weapon was found in his cell a day before he was scheduled to testify in the Feb. 7 hearing, said Audrey Bomse, assistant deputy public advocate.

Cannell, who was bitten three times by a guard during the Jan. 11 incident, was a few days short of serving out 30 days in isolation for his role in the disturbance when the weapon was found. He was sentenced to an additional seven days in isolation. Bomse said the timing of the weapon’s discovery was suspicious.

Jones was moved from the Bergen County Jail on April 13 to the Garden State Reception and Youth Correctional Facility. He was tried nine days later and found guilty of inciting a riot and was sentenced the same day. On Tuesday, he was moved to East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, where he will serve his sentence and 365 days in administrative segregation.

Jones and Cannell were two of five inmates who called The Record on Jan. 11 to say they were going on a hunger strike to protest the quality of food and size of the portions.

Jones testified at the Feb. 7 hearing that as a leader of a group of white inmates, he persuaded black and Puerto Rican inmates in his dormitory to go on a hunger strike. All 64 inmates in the dormitory skipped lunch that day, he testified.

That evening, all but five inmates dumped their food into the garbage. As they all tried to rush out of the mess hall to return to their dormitory, some corrections officers were knocked down, Jones said. Officers used dogs to quell the resulting disturbance.

Fifteen inmates not including Jones faced institutional charges. Cannell and Howard Tucker were charged additionally with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. That case is before a Bergen County grand jury.

Jones testified that he continued his hunger strike for five more days out of remorse that other inmates got into trouble, when he, as the leader, was not charged.

Terhune said his department sent a report of the incident to the Department of Corrections for possible sanctions against Jones because he was a state inmate, held at the jail under a contract with the state.

But Bomse said the Corrections Department violated several of its own guidelines. Jones was in a county jail and should have been charged there, she said. Also, she added, the inmate should have been advised in writing, usually through a handbook given to inmates when they are assigned to an institution, of acts that are prohibited.

Even in exceptional circumstances, or if new evidence were obtained, Jones should have been charged within 48 hours of his testimony and the charges should then have been investigated, Bomse said.

BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON; LAWSUIT; PROBE

ID: 17375838 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)