BERGEN JAIL CROWDING IS LAID TO STATE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, July 11, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune is warning the state Corrections Department that an overload of state inmates is making the county jail unmanageable.
“We have an authorized capacity of 423 between the annex and the main jail, and we run 230 to 240 percent above that, consistently,” Terhune said in an interview Wednesday.
“Now, when you take human beings and you put them in smaller space than was designed for them, you are going to have the potential for violence, the potential for problems.”
Terhune, who said he recognized the state’s prison overcrowding problem, wants some state prisoners removed from his jail.
County jails are supposed to house anyone sentenced to a term of 364 days or less, with those sentenced to a year or more going to a state prison. Of the jail’s population of 966, 429 belong in a state prison, Terhune said. The jail population often swells to more than 1,000 on weekends, he added.
Under a state executive order signed in 1981 and renewed every six months since, Bergen County must take 72 state inmates.
“We get $45 a day to keep state inmates here,” Terhune said. “The cost to the taxpayers of Bergen County is $63 to keep them, so we are losing money. People think we make money off this thing. We don’t.”
The sheriff has written two letters to Corrections Commissioner William H. Fauver expressing his concerns. A spokeswoman said Wednesday that the state removed 10 inmates following Terhune’s first letter in May and plans to remove 30 more this week.
Inmates in two Bergen County Jail annex cell sections were disciplined in a “lockdown” during the weekend following a food fight in one cell section and a gang attack on an inmate in the other. Overcrowding contributed to both incidents, Terhune said, adding that most of those involved were state inmates.
Fauver is aware of the overcrowding problem in all county jails, said Patricia Mulcahy, a Corrections Department spokeswoman, but the 15 state prisons with 23,518 inmates are running an average of 130 percent over capacity. About 3,400 state inmates are in county jails, with some of the jails running 300 percent to 400 percent over capacity.
To alleviate some of the problem, the state will take over the vacant 300-bed Hudson County Correctional Facility in Secaucus, with the first 100 beds available Monday, Mulcahy said. She said she did not know whether any beds would go to county jail inmates.
A 1988 lawsuit brought against Bergen County on behalf of jail inmates seeking relief from overcrowding, among other issues, is being negotiated for a possible settlement. None of the parties in the suit would comment on it this week.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON; POPULATION; NEW JERSEY

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

2 HELD IN ARMED ROBBERY IN HACKENSACK

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, December 30, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

Two men were being held in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday on $20,000 bail each after their arrest in a city apartment building following a report of an armed robbery outside a convenience store, police said.
Bryan Miller, 26, of Ridgewood and Troy Jones, 30, of Englewood, who police say were staying at 370 Park St., were charged with armed robbery, Police Chief William Iurato said in a news release.
Iurato said that at 11 p.m. Friday, Miller held a gun to three men coming out of Simon Sez, a convenience store at 281 State St., while Jones emptied the men’s pockets and took about $40 and cigarettes. Miller and Jones then ran from the scene in opposite directions, Iurato said.
One of the victims stopped a passing police car, reported the robbery, and described the men, the chief said.
An investigation led to the arrest of the men at 370 Park St., Iurato said.

Keywords: ROBBERY; HACKENSACK; BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON; STORE

PAIR MAY BE LINKED TO 23 BREAK-INS; CHARGED IN NOV. 17 THEFT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, December 2, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A46

Two men arrested during a domestic dispute were charged with theft and burglary for one of 23 recent break-ins in the city and are suspected of being involved in the others, police said.

Walter Wiggins, 36, of 230 Central Ave., Hackensack, and Howard J. Hutchinson, 30, of Englewood were to be transferred from Englewood to the Bergen County Jail on Friday.

Englewood Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said the men were being charged with the Nov. 17 break-in of a garden apartment at 530 Broad Ave. Tinsley said items stolen from the apartment were recovered from the two.

Patrolmen Tim Torell and George Austin Jr. were responding to a call Thursday night about threats to Hutchinson’s sister, Georgia, 32, at 9-22 Rock Creek Terrace, Englewood, where they arrested Wiggins and Hutchinson, Tinsley said. A 9-inch kitchen knife was found imbedded in a wall where Wiggins had been jabbing it, he said.

Tinsley declined to say how police were able to connect the men with the burglary.

Wiggins was being held on $10,500 bail on charges of unlawful possession of a weapon, making terroristic threats, theft, and burglary. Hutchinson, being held on $5,000 bail, was charged with theft and burglary.