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Many people incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison’s West Compound are confined in cells so small they can touch the ceiling and both walls with their arms outstretched, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson.
The Department of Corrections did not respond to an email seeking comment.
New Jersey State Prison, a maximum security prison in Trenton, the state’s capital, holds more than 1,300 people across its three compounds, North, South, and West. As part of their inspection of the West Compound, investigators conducted site visits and interviewed over 100 incarcerated people, as well as staff and prison leadership.
Investigators found that West Compound prison cells, with the exception of one wing, “are very small.” Cells in the solitary confinement unit, which the Department of Corrections has named the Restorative Housing Unit, “are shockingly small,” measuring four feet by seven feet.
“People housed on 7-Wing [the Restorative Housing Unit] can touch the ceiling and can extend their arms to touch both side-walls of the cell,” the report says. “The same is true for much of the population in 1-wing, 2-wing and 6-wing, though these cells are larger than the ones in 7-wing.”
The New Jersey Administrative Code requires that county jail cells have 35 square feet of unencumbered floor space in single-occupancy cells, but there are no minimum requirements for the size of prison cells, according to the report. Cells in only one wing of West Compound meet the county jail requirement. The other cells range in size from 35 square feet to 45 square feet, with beds that take up 13.5 square feet of floor space.
Each cell has a sink and a toilet. The sinks have no hot water and the toilets are “directly exposed to the open bars of the cell door,” according to the report.
Residents also have no privacy while showering, which has led them to bathe with their underwear on.
“[T]he West Compound does not have enclosed shower stalls that offer any modesty or privacy while bathing,” the report says. “Showerheads are positioned along the wall on the first floor of the housing unit, separated with makeshift dividers. People in the stalls are directly visible to those on higher floors of the housing unit.”
New Jersey is one of the country’s fastest warming states, but there is no air conditioning in West Compound’s housing units. This past summer, the state was hit with numerous heat waves.
For more than half of West Compound’s almost 200-year existence, experts have called for the prison’s closure. In 1918, a commission created by the state legislature recommended replacing the prison, saying that it was “antiquated and inadequate” and “much too small for decent living,” per the report. More than 30 years later, in 1952, another committee advised the state’s then-governor to build a new prison according to “standards of modern penology.”
The report concluded with a plea to state leaders to finally heed that call.
“The buildings in the West Compound were constructed nearly 200 years ago, and have been called antiquated and inhumane by New Jersey correctional leaders, policymakers, and subject matter experts for at least the last 100 years,” the report says. “Lawmakers and the Department of Corrections should prioritize and fund the demolition and replacement of the West Compound with modern correctional housing units that better meet the needs of the Department and the incarcerated population.”
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