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Dickensian complaint over NJ prison conditions

By Douglas A. Berman

A helpful reader alerted me to this news of a new lawsuit concerning New Jersey's prison conditions, which indirectly touches on many economic issues that surround prison nation.  Here are excerpts the article:Conditions out of Charles Dickens' novel beset the 1,800 inmates at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, according to a recent class action lawsuit filed by seven inmates. Indeed, Dickens, who visited the facility in 1842, decried the conditions at the jail, the suit noted.  Sections of the current prison date to the 1860s.... The suit claims that actions of corrections officers, who are in a dispute with the DOC over salary cuts and overtime, exacerbate the problems.  Because of pay cuts, officers have an incentive to make additional money by smuggling in contraband, the suit says...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 26, 2008 (boomark / email).