According to a press release dated December 4, 2021, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General is investigating the attack of an inmate at the Essex County Correctional Facility, who was pronounced dead at University Hospital in Newark on Friday morning at 9:03am. The identity of the inmate has not been released.
The investigation will be bifurcated, with the Attorney General’s Office investigating the conduct of correctional officers and other jail staff, and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office investigating the conduct of any other parties that may be responsible.
A union official for the supervisors at the Correctional Facility told NJ Advance Media that the inmate was stabbed on Thursday afternoon and then placed in a detention cell. He was found dead in the cell on Friday morning. (For more information, the NJ.com article can be found here.)
This inmate’s death comes on the heels of the attack of another inmate, Jayshawn Boyd, who was transferred to the Essex County Correctional Facility from Union County. Boyd (whose attorney claims was improperly lodged in the gang unit after several falsehoods were entered on his psychiatric intake questionnaire) was brutally beaten and left for dead by seven other inmates (four of whom were already facing charges for Murder or Attempted Murder). A video of the attack was leaked on social media on Sunday, November 21, 2021.
The graphic video depicts more than two minutes of the attack, during which time not a single corrections officer entered the unit to intervene. Boyd’s attorney has already filed notice of her intent to sue Essex County.
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