Jersey Journal
HUDSON COUNTY, N.J. — The leader of a local NAACP chapter and the corrections officers’ union president are skeptical of a preliminary report that found no racial bias in discipline procedures at the Hudson County jail in Kearny.
For months, VJRS, a Colorado consulting firm, has studied the policies and procedures at the jail, where numerous corrections officers and workers have complained that black workers are disciplined more severely than white workers.
At Tuesday’s Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders Caucus, Freeholder Bill O’Dea read into the record the remarks presented by the consulting firm enumerating a number of problems at the jail. But discrimination was not one of them.
“How can they make that determination when they’ve only interviewed 50 of the 400 people working at the jail?” asked David Baker, president of the Hudson County Police Officers Benevolent Association, which represents corrections officers.
“When I have come to the freeholders on previous occasions to speak on this issue, I have stressed that we have had complaints from whites and Hispanics,” said Kabili Tayari, president of the Jersey City branch of the NAACP, “but most of the complaints that have come to the Jersey City NAACP have been from African-Americans.”
The $43,000 study, not yet complete, was commissioned by the freeholders after numerous complaints from workers about the working conditions at the jail.
County officials, including some freeholders, met with the consulting firm last week to hear the preliminary findings.
VJRS said it has not done an in-depth examination of the disciplinary actions taken by the jail, but found the policy of suspending employees from 90 to 180 days harsh and counterproductive.
According to Freeholder O’Dea, the consultant’s report noted unsatisfactory living conditions in the jail, low morale among the staff, the absence of a mission statement or a coherent management policy, and a disconnect between the jail’s director, Oscar Aviles, and his staff.
But the firm also had praise for Aviles, saying in the report that he set a high standard for the facility. While VJRS is far from finished with its review, it has recommended that a firm be brought in to create a management policy and a monitor be appointed to see that the management objectives are implemented.
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