By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 25, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page A04
A Bergen County Jail prisoner claims he was injured when he was subdued by a police dog during an inmate protest over food.
Another inmate said the prisoner was bitten by the officer’s dog, but Sheriff Jack Terhune would say only that he assumed the inmate was bitten, because he needed medical attention.
Inmate Gary Jones, 32, said in a call to The Record that he saw a guard dog bite Gregory Cannell on Jan. 11 during a melee that ensued when several inmates dumped their food trays in protest over the portions they receive at mealtime.
Terhune said Thursday that Cannell received medical attention after he was taken into custody with the assistance of the guard dog. Cannell, 26, of Union City, was then returned to an isolation cell because he and Howard Tucker, 19, of Newark, face a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer in the disturbance, Terhune said.
Cannell was one of several inmates who tried to push past a corrections officer into a hallway after about 10 inmates had dumped their trays, Terhune said. Several officers responded to the correction officer’s call for assistance, he added, declining to say whether anyone else was hurt.
Jones was one of five inmates who called The Record around midday on Jan. 11, before the disturbance later that afternoon, to say they were on a hunger strike in protest of their meal portions, and of general conditions. Jones reported the incident to The Record several days later.
The state Department of the Public Advocate, which is representing the jail inmates in a suit to reduce overcrowding at the jail, is looking into the incident and may have the inmates involved testify at a hearing next week.
Assistant Deputy Public Advocate Audrey Bomse said she was aware of the incident but had not received a report from either side. The charges of assault filed against the two inmates were not surprising, Bomse said.
“I’m not going to prejudge this. Sometimes that is the case, but sometimes it is also used as justification for the use of excessive force upon inmates,” Bomse said.
Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON; ANIMAL; ASSAULT
Notes: Cut in late editions.
ID: 17366953 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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