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| Officers won't be charged in N.J. prison probe |
| By The Daily Journal |
| Published: 03/26/2004 |
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No criminal charges will be filed against corrections officers at Bayside State Prison in New Jersey who are accused of abusing inmates after an officer was murdered there in 1997. The New Jersey Attorney General's Office announced the decision Thursday, releasing a 31-page report that concluded there isn't evidence to support any charges. But prison officers and the N.J. Department of Corrections still face hundreds of civil lawsuits filed by individual inmates for what their advocates called a systematic pattern of violence in the wake of Frederick Baker's stabbing death July 30, 1997. Steven Beverly, an inmate at the medium-security prison in Leesburg, was convicted at trial and is now serving a life sentence at an Arizona prison. Authorities determined he acted alone in stabbing the senior corrections officer. State investigators looked into complaints of widespread violence by corrections officers against inmates during the days following Baker's murder. But no allegations by inmates or prison staff members were found to be credible, the attorney general's report concluded. Some staff members also complained that they had been forced to change reports requested by investigators, an allegation the Attorney General's Office deemed to be unfounded. Following an initial investigation by prison officials, former officers came forward to say they witnessed unprovoked beatings. "Despite a plethora of allegations to the contrary, two unassailable facts remain," the report said. "First, the only serious injury that occurred at Bayside State Prison was the fatal blow dealt to Officer Fred Baker." Secondly, the report said, while some cases of unprofessional conduct by corrections officers were uncovered in the investigation, none rose to the level of criminal activity. The report is unlikely to be the end of the controversy. About 600 of the 2,400 inmates at Bayside claimed they were beaten or otherwise physically abused to avenge Baker's death during a month-long lockdown following the murder. "The state has time after time tried to make this case disappear," said Maggie Smith, one of the attorneys involved in filing the inmates' original complaints. "And time after time judges have refused to drop the cases." The inmates were denied class-action status that would have allowed attorneys to try the cases together, but Smith said each individual case will be heard in civil actions pursued by about half of the 600 inmates who originally filed abuse complaints. The cases will be heard in U.S. District Court in Camden, Smith said. |
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