COUNTY INMATES PLACED IN LOCKDOWN FOOD FIGHT, ATTACK LED TO MEASURES

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 10, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

Inmates in two Bergen County Jail Annex cell sections were put in disciplinary “lockdowns” over the weekend following a food fight in one cell and a gang attack on an inmate in the other, a jail official said Tuesday.
The first incident occurred about 5:50 p.m. Friday when the 72 inmates in Cell Pod A demanded fried fish instead of the baked fish they were served, said Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune.
In the ensuing verbal complaints about the food, Terhune said, an inmate knocked over a stack of food trays. The other inmates then began throwing their food.
A second lockdown of 72 more inmates started in Cell Pod B about 9:20 p.m. when six inmates ganged up on one, Terhune said.
A lockdown, in which inmates lose all privileges as they are locked up in their cells, occurs when inmates violate the jail’s rules and code of conduct. Terhune said jail administrators then investigate to find out who was responsible for the violation.
Terhune said jail officials on Tuesday released all 144 inmates from lockdown and restored privileges to the inmates.
In a telephone call to The Record on Tuesday, two inmates, speaking on condition that they not be identified, said they were locked up and denied privileges when they refused to identify the inmate who knocked over the trays. They said the protest began because they were served fish that was improperly cooked.
Terhune said most of the inmates involved in Friday’s incidents were state prisoners, and that 425 of 965 inmates currently in the jail are state prisoners. The jail has a rated capacity of 423 inmates.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON

ID: 17348977 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)