| Freeholder and State Assemblyman Ralph Caputo even went so far as to say that this contract would provide a "service" to the immigrant community of Essex County because people will be incarcerated closer to loved ones.
Please help us get to 500 signatures to stop the new ICE contract in Essex County.
If you haven't already done so sign the petition. If you have forward this link to your friends and family http://www.change.org/petition...
We have grave concerns as to the impact that the focus on revenue generation will have on conditions at the Essex County Correctional Facility. This is a facility at which serious charges about inhumane conditions already exist including human rights and civil rights violations and violations of the New Jersey Administrative Code. These charges have been publicly leveled by numerous independent organizations to the Board of Chosen Freeholders on several occasions.
If you can please attend and voice your opposition to the significant expansion of immigration detention in a jail with a record of denying access to lawyers and clergy as well as other civil and human rights abuses. (Wednesday, September 7, 2011, at 7:00 p.m., at West Orange Town Hall, 66 Main Street, West Orange, NJ)
If you cannot attend you can email, phone or fax the freeholders
Board of Chosen Freeholders, County of Essex
465 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Room 558 Hall of Records, Newark, New Jersey 07102
Tel: (973) 621-4486 Fax: (973) 621-5695
ddavisford@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Donald Payne, Jr.
Email: dpayne@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Phone: 973-621-4467
Blonnie Watson, President-At-Large
Email: bwatson@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Phone: 973-621-4473
Ralph Caputo
Email: rcaputo@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Pat Sebold
Email: psebold@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Phone: 973-621-4484
Rufus I. Johnson
Email: rjohnson@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Phone: 973-621-4483
If you haven't already please sign the petition and forward it to others
http://www.change.org/petition...
This is important because the proposed contract between Essex County and ICE would expand an inhumane system that breaks apart families and is wasteful of tax dollars. Many organizations have expressed concerns that the Essex County Correctional Facility has been restricting or barring visits from family, lawyers, clergy, and other humanitarian groups and concerns about adequate food, general safety and exposure to hazardous environmental conditions from the numerous super fund within close proximity of the facility and proposed outdoor recreation area persist.
We oppose the proposed expansion of immigration detention in Essex County because many of those ensnared in the indiscriminate immigration enforcement dragnet which automatically leads to detention are long-term residents, green card holders, U.S. citizens, business owners, college graduates and veterans. We also have grave concerns about the conditions under which they are being held.
The Essex County Freeholders continue to wash their hands of any responsibility claiming immigration detention is a product of federal policy over which they have no control and they continue to claim that the Essex County Jail is a model of efficiency and conditions are humane . However, they do have complete control over the conditions in the jail yet inadequate access to clergy, family and lawyers persist.
We demand that the freeholders vote no on the contract to expand detention and immediately improve the conditions at the jail for immigrant detainees so as to include:
· Visiting hours that include evenings and weekends
· Contact visits for family members
· No restrictions on visits, phone calls, and other contact with lawyers and clergy
· Adequate mental and physical health care
· Healthy food that complies with dietary restrictions and religious observances
· Unrestricted access to communal religious services
· Regular outdoor recreation free from exposure to hazardous environmental conditions |
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