NJ Prison Hunger Strikes Continue; Essex ICE Detainees Fear COVID – Yahoo News

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A wave of coronavirus-inspired hunger strikes at prisons across North Jersey has spread to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark.

There were 10 federal immigration detainees on hunger strike at the county-run prison as of Wednesday, down one from the previous day, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told Patch.

Advocates have reported a larger number of participating detainees, asking the community to “speak up in support of the 86 hunger strikers” on Wednesday.

The Abolish ICE NY-NJ Coalition, speaking on behalf of some of the participating hunger strikers, said the detainees are demanding to be released from ICE custody because they’re at risk amid the coronavirus pandemic.

They want to continue their immigration cases while living with friends or family, advocates said.

“If they were a U.S. citizen, they would be home with their families right now,” the coalition said.

“We’re fighting because I want to stay in this country with my children, in this country where I have lived for so long and which I consider home,” an unnamed detainee told the group. “We’re sacrificing our bodies, letting them know that staying in the country with my children – and my children’s well-being – is more important than my life.”

A spokesperson with ICE’s Newark office offered a statement about the hunger strike at Essex County Correctional Facility:

More information on the ICE’s “performance-based” national detention standards can be seen here.

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Similar actions have recently taken place at other North Jersey prisons that are paid to house ICE detainees, including the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, where a hunger strike was launched among detainees last week.

Another hunger strike took place there at the onset of the pandemic in March.

Meanwhile, a month-long hunger strike started in November among dozens of detainees at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack. There were repeated clashes between authorities and protesters, who held demonstrations outside the prison almost daily.

RELEASING PRISONERS AMID COVID

Like their peers in Hudson and Bergen, Essex County doesn’t have the authority to release federal detainees on their own, local officials have previously pointed out.

“Although detainees are held in the Essex County Correctional Facility while awaiting immigration proceedings, by law they are in the federal custody of ICE and can only be released if the Department of Homeland Security or ICE grants their release, or if an order for their release is issued by a federal judge,” the Essex County Board of Commissioners recently wrote in a joint statement.

However, thousands of other prisoners have already been released across New Jersey due to the coronavirus crisis.

In November, New Jersey freed more than 2,000 inmates from state prisons to help slow the spread of the coronavirus after a new law gave them “pandemic credits” towards their release.

November’s mass release came on the heels of a previous executive order from Gov. Phil Murphy, which allowed some “low-risk” inmates to be placed in temporary home confinement during the COVID-19 crisis.

In March, amid reports of hunger strikes and confirmed COVID-19 cases at several jails in New Jersey, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner signed an order calling for the temporary release of up to 1,000 inmates in county jails as a way to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

Advocates have also pushed for prisoners’ release on the federal level. In March, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the immediate release of 10 people detained by ICE in Hudson, Bergen and Essex County. The order came after New York-based Brooklyn Defender Services filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on their behalf in the Southern District of New York.

The group said it sought the release of the detainees because of ICE’s “inability to protect them” during the public health crisis surrounding the coronavirus.

ICE, CORONAVIRUS AND ESSEX COUNTY: A BRIEF BACKGROUND

The Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF) houses inmates, as well as federal ICE detainees. ICE pays Essex County $120 per day for each detainee.

Essex County has been contracting to house undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation since 2011, making an estimated $15 to $20 million in profit from a contract that was expected to create more than $42 million in revenue in 2019.

Family members and advocates have been relentlessly protesting for years to get immigrant detainees released at the ECCF and nix the county’s contract with ICE.

A week ago, Essex County elected officials and ICE received a petition signed by 1,200 people demanding the release of Hieu Huynh, a Vietnamese native who has been detained at the ECCF for more than six months.

In addition to freeholder meetings, another favorite target among protesters has been ICE’s office in Newark, which helps to deport hundreds of undocumented immigrants a month.

Their efforts have shifted into high gear during the pandemic, as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout prisons in New Jersey, including the ECCF.

It’s not just inmates who are at risk, advocates charge. Staff, their families and the people who live around the prisons are also endangered by keeping detainees in jail, they say.

According to advocates, the threat of coronavirus at the ECCF is especially concerning, considering the alleged health and safety violations that have been reported at the facility over the past few years.

In Essex County, prison administrators have been taking several steps to help stop the spread of the virus since the onset of the pandemic. They’ve included modifying visitation policies, switching from detainee to civilian staff in the kitchen, quarantining newly arrived inmates and detainees for an extended period, and rolling out screenings for corrections officers, civilians and outside vendor staff when they enter the building.

In April, officials announced the prison would be one of the first jails in the nation to use the recently approved COVID-19 IgG/IgM rapid test cassette. The new tests will be used for inmates and federal ICE detainees, whether they’re symptomatic or not, officials stated.

Administrators released the following COVID-19 case statistics for the Essex County Correctional Facility on Wednesday.

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In recent years, officials have taken other steps to safeguard the rights of federal detainees and improve overall conditions at the prison.

Last year, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. and the commissioner board announced that a portion of the profits from the county’s ICE contract will be used to hire free lawyers for detainees who can’t afford them.

Recently, the county launched a civilian task force that will help provide oversight at the prison.

In June, the commissioner board passed a resolution that urges the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to “promptly grant the release of all detainees currently incarcerated due solely to their immigration status.”

Despite these efforts, activists and family members have kept up the pressure when it comes to ICE and the Essex County Correctional Facility.

“Essex County profits from ICE blood money and needs the militant activism we’ve seen in Bergen and Hudson counties,” the North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America tweeted Tuesday.

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This article originally appeared on the Newark Patch