The Jersey Journal
HUDSON COUNTY, N.J. — Prompted by complaints of bias on the job and excessive disciplinary action at the Hudson County Jail, and by a one-officer picket line in front of the Hudson County Administration Annex, the county Board of Chosen Freeholders is mulling an investigation of personnel practices and procedures at the facility.
Jersey City NAACP President Kabili Tayari, also a Jersey City deputy mayor, asked for the investigation Thursday at the freeholders meeting. He cited a stream of complaints his organization has received from jail employees, many of them black, about disciplinary actions, suspensions and terminations.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea suggested that a panel of county agencies and community groups, including the NAACP, Urban League and Ministerial Alliance, be formed to examine the workings of the jail.
“This is politically motivated,” county spokesman Jim Kennelly said yesterday. “We welcome the opportunity to show what an outstanding job (Hudson County Department of Corrections Director) Oscar Aviles has done. All the statistics show that Oscar Aviles has been fair and even-handed in the treatment of every employee at the correctional center.”
Corrections Officer Jovonda Jackson picketed the county administration building on Newark Avenue last week to protest the three-week suspension she said she received after filing a hostile-work-environment claim. Jackson was reportedly waiting for a fitness evaluation before she could return to work.
Jackson, who has worked for the jail for 19 years, was one of several employees who addressed the freeholders Thursday. No jail officials were present.
Less than 24 hours later, Jackson says, she received a phone call from her employer instructing her to report back to work Monday.
“I am not here to attack anyone,” Tayari said. “But when we receive so many complaints from jail employees, there has to be a response.”
Jackson said a series of incidents led her to file the complaint.
She said she was repeatedly harassed while working in the jail’s gang unit several months ago. Jackson was removed from that unit, but she said things didn’t get better. The mistreatment came to a head when she was locked in a vacant portion of the jail and had to call the reception desk to ask for someone to let her out, Jackson said.
She said after her complaint was filed, she was suspended without pay last month, pending a satisfactory “fitness for duty” evaluation, and was ordered to appear at a hearing.
The hearing was held before the fitness report arrived and Jackson’s attorney objected to proceeding without it. Three weeks later, Jackson still had no paycheck and was still waiting for a hearing.
Freeholder Jeffrey Dublin suggested an outside agency conduct an inquiry.
Copyright 2007 Jersey Journal