As reported by nj.com, charging Essex County has for years placed profits over public safety at Delaney Hall halfway house, two law enforcement unions have filed a lawsuit alleging the facility violates state law by placing county inmates in the care of a private complaint.

The 19-page suit calls on the county to sever its ties with the nonprofit Education and Health Centers of America, which has a contract to run Delaney Hall, through its for-profit partner, Community Education Centers. The county pays $20 million a year to run Delaney Hall, a 1,200-bed institution in Newark for nonviolent offenders that is considered a jail alternative.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Superior Court in Newark by the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association and Essex County Corrections Officers Union Local 382. It follows a series of articles in the New York Times in June that detailed escapes, drug use, lax security, and violence at institutions in the state, including Delaney Hall. In one case, Newark barber Derek West Harris was robbed and strangled on May 18, 2009, by three fellow Delaney Hall inmates who all had violent criminal pasts. Harris, 51, had been sent to Delaney Hall two days earlier for failing to pay traffic fines.

Essentially, the lawsuit claims there is no statutory authority in New Jersey that allows counties to divert inmates from jails to private facilities. Whenever inmates are housed outside the usual confines of a correctional center, the suit says, it must be done in partnership with nonprofit corporations. The lawsuit “questions the validity of EHCA as a non-profit entity.”

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, State PBA President Anthony Wieners said his group has complained for years about Essex County’s partnership with Education and Health Centers, which he claims trades “inmates for financial incentives.” Wieners alleges Essex sends its inmates to Delaney Hall, a cheaper, less secure facility, and then uses its more secure facility to house federal prisoners, from which it earns additional revenue. “The lives that have been lost as a result of putting profit over safety cannot be brought back, but this system must be stopped,” he said.

Joe Amato, president of the corrections officers union, has long accused the county and Community Education Centers of mismanagement at Delaney Hall. While corrections officers are not assigned to Delaney Hall, Amato said they do provide support services. “It’s supposed to be a facility that’s a last stop before re-entering the street,” he said.  Instead, the county is holding “pre-adjudicated inmates with violent backgrounds. They’ve turned it into a holding pen, a county jail annex.”

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Photo of Donald C. Barbati Donald C. Barbati

Donald C. Barbati is a shareholder of Crivelli, Barbati & DeRose, L.L.C. His primary practice revolves around the representation of numerous public employee labor unions in various capacities to include contract negotiation, unfair labor practice litigation, contract grievance arbitration, and other diverse issues…

Donald C. Barbati is a shareholder of Crivelli, Barbati & DeRose, L.L.C. His primary practice revolves around the representation of numerous public employee labor unions in various capacities to include contract negotiation, unfair labor practice litigation, contract grievance arbitration, and other diverse issues litigated before the courts and administrative tribunals throughout the State of New Jersey. In addition, Mr. Barbati also routinely represents individuals in various types of public pension appeals, real estate transactions, and general litigation matters. He is a frequent contributor to the New Jersey Public Safety Officers Law Blog, a free legal publication designed to keep New Jersey public safety officers up-to-date and informed about legal issues pertinent to their profession. During his years of practice, Mr. Barbati has established a reputation for achieving favorable results for his clients in a cost-efficient manner.

Mr. Barbati has also handled numerous novel legal issues while representing New Jersey Public Safety Officers. Most notably, he served as lead counsel for the Appellants in the published case In re Rodriguez, 423 N.J. Super. 440 (App. Div. 2011). In that case, Mr. Barbati successfully argued on behalf of the Appellants, thereby overturning the Attorney General’s denial of counsel to two prison guards in a civil rights suit arising from an inmate assault. In the process, the Court clarified the standard to be utilized by the Attorney General in assessing whether a public employee is entitled to legal representation and mandated that reliance must be placed on up-to-date information.

Prior to becoming a practicing attorney, Mr. Barbati served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Linda R. Feinberg, Assignment Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Mercer Vicinage. During his clerkship Mr. Barbati handled numerous complex and novel substantive and procedural issues arising from complaints in lieu of prerogative writs, orders to show cause, and motion practice. These include appeals from decisions by planning and zoning boards and local government bodies, bidding challenges under the Local Public Contract Law, Open Public Records Act requests, the taking of private property under the eminent domain statute, and election law disputes. In addition, Mr. Barbati, as a certified mediator, mediated many small claims disputes in the Special Civil Part.

Mr. Barbati received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, magna cum laude, from Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Upon graduating, Mr. Barbati attended Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2007, he received his juris doctorate, magna cum laude, graduating in the top five percent of his class. During law school, Mr. Barbati interned for the Honorable Joseph E. Irenas, Senior United States District Court Judge for the District of New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey, assisting on various constitutional, employment, and Third Circuit Court of Appeals litigation, including numerous civil rights, social security, and immigration cases.