Newark PD HQ.jpg

The Newark police headquarters building on Clinton Avenue. Mayor Ras Baraka says a holding facility inside the $68 million building is not fit to replace the city's current cell block, which federal investigators say contains suicide hazards and other inadequacies.

(Dan Ivers/NJ Advance Media)

NEWARK — A Newark jail overrun with rodents where a pair of inmates has hung themselves since 2010 must undergo significant repairs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which called the facility rife with suicide hazards.



Officials are exploring measures to fix the 78-year-old facility on Green Street, which is beset with health issues and other problems. The city hopes to rely on grants, as it would be difficult to find millions of dollars in a budget that already has an $93.5 million deficit.

At one time, the city considered replacing their deteriorating jail by adapting a facility at department headquarters on Clinton Avenue street that was built just three years ago and lies nearly empty. But city officials said that solution is now off the table.



"What I have to think of, is what is the most cost effective thing to do," Mayor Ras Baraka said. "My concern is that they have a place that's humane and safe for (officers) as well as the prisoners that we bring in."



Many of the problems at the Green Street facility - which includes 50 individual cells for men and another 8 for women - were made public last month as part of a scathing U.S. Department of Justice report on the city's police department, which criticized its setup as inadequate to prevent inmate suicides.



"The layout of the Cell Block offers only limited lines of sight into the cells, and the cells all contain suicide hazards such as exposed cross bars which could be used as hanging points," the report said.



Public records indicate that two men have hung themselves at the facility over the last five years, prompting their families to file lawsuits against the city. Over the same time period, police recorded only two other suicide attempts by prisoners, one by a man who attempted to hang himself, and another by a woman who overdosed on medication.



In addition to the suicide risks, the DOJ also identified a lack of proper training for officers working at the Green Street jail, and said an assignment to the jail was perceived as "undesirable" and an informal punishment.

The facility houses all suspects arrested by Newark police, for crimes ranging from disorderly persons offenses to robberies and aggravated assaults. Prisoners typically remain there for just a single night, until they can appear in court and are either released or transferred to the Essex County Detention Center.

Other officials contend that the cell block faces problems far beyond those identified by the DOJ, which also criticized the department’s “stop-and-frisk program”, use of force practices, internal affairs system and alleged targeting of the black community for stops and arrests.

James Stewart Jr., President of Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the cell block is ridden with rodents and other vermin, and is regularly shut down to be fumigated.

“It’s not a place for humans to be working,” Stewart said.

Baraka acknowledges various code violations at the facility (no records of violations are kept for city-owned property), and said that a contract with the Essex County Improvement Authority, which owns the building under a sale-leaseback agreement, contains provisions that would assist in them being corrected.

Still, renovations to the building would be costly, and the city is already home to another building facility that was built just three years ago, inside its new police headquarters on Clinton Avenue.

Officials hailed the five-story, $68 million building as the “Taj Mahal of public safety” upon its opening in 2011, and features amenities such as an exercise area and room meant to host community meetings and activities.

But a floor outfitted with cells and other furnishings has been rarely, if ever, used, because the state Department of Corrections has refused to grant approval for it to house a normal flow of prisoners, officials said. A representative for the DOC did not return a request for details on what specific improvements would be necessary.

In its report, the DOJ called the space a “modern holding facility which would likely mitigate concerns about suicide hazards” at the Green Street block, but said investigators had been informed that prisoner holding operations would not be moved there.

“As a result of this change in plans, the United States may seek additional remedies to ensure NPD ensures adequate suicide precautions are maintained at Green Street,” the agency said.

Baraka said any potential move would need to be preceded by major renovations. He contended that the facility was never intended to house a typical flow of prisoners, but rather to corral an overflow of detainees in the event of a riot, unruly crowds or other emergency.

“It wasn’t built to be a replacement,” he said.

Officials have offered no estimates for potential repairs on either facility.



U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who was mayor while the Clinton Avenue building was under construction, backed his successor's claims.



"The holding facility in Newark's police headquarters was never designed to be used as the main municipal jail — it was designed for use for overflow. However, it should not be used in any capacity unless it is safe for people to be there," he said in a statement.



Stewart, however, said he and other officers had always been told that the new headquarters was built to replace the decrepit Green Street facility, and had never been told it was to be used only in cases of emergency.



"The FOP is simply seeking the best facility for our members, and we have a pristine unused facility at 480 Clinton Avenue that's been unused since the building's opening in 2011. To date, we have not been able to get an answer as to why."

Correction: An earlier version of this story provided an incorrect figure for the city's budget deficit.

Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.