Activists: Detainees
lack health care in jail
By GENE RACZ,
thnt.com Online, April 19, 2008
MIDDLESEX COUNTY — In the wake
of the recent death of an immigrant detainee held at the Middlesex County jail,
a citizen activist group has called on the county freeholders to open an
investigation into what it perceives as problems within the facility.
The group, New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee, is also calling on the
freeholders to cancel their contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) which pays the county $100 a day per detainee. The county
anticipates revenues of $6.17 million in 2008 for providing ICE with use of the
county jail for immigrant detainees who numbered 184 out of the total inmate
population of 1,290 as of Friday.
On March 2, a man detained under the name of Arturo Alvarez died at St. Peter's
University Hospital in New Brunswick after suffering a heart attack at the jail
on Feb. 29.
A petition signed by 93 detainees was sent to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey,
complaining about what the detainees called a lack of medical treatment for the
heart-attack victim and another man at the jail.
"The petition tells us that Arturo made repeated attempts to see a doctor and
was not allowed to see a doctor," said Jeannette Gabriel, one of the founding
members of the civil rights activist group. "This is what we hear from all the
detention centers, doctors are not available, people are just given Tylenol, and
that's all."
The requests by the activist group were made of the freeholders at Thursday
night's regular meeting where freeholder Christopher D. Rafano said he would
meet separately with the group to hear their concerns.
"I'm willing to meet with the organization on the issue, as I'm willing to meet
with any organization to hear concerns," said Rafano, chairman of the county's
Committee of Law and Public Safety. Rafano noted the county jail has passed
inspections conducted by the county, state and federal government over the year,
at times with 100 percent scores.
Edmund C. Cicchi, warden of the Middlesex County county jail, noted that the
facility has received yearly inspections since it entered into its contract with
ICE on Dec. 1, 2001.
"We have consistently passed those inspections with 100 percent compliance,
especially in the area of inmate health care," said Cicchi who said
confidentiality rules precluded him from commenting on the specifics regarding
the death of Alvarez.
The 72-year-old Alverez arrived from Cuba in 1980, the year of the Mariel Boat
lift when 125,000 Cubans fled to the United States.
"The circumstances surrounding (the death) were investigated by us, the county,
as well as the federal government," Rafano said, "and the determination was that
all the proper medical protocols were followed. He died of natural causes."
The county jail contracts its health service out to Marlton-based CFG Health
Systems. Rafano said the county jail bids out for health services and has used
CFG "for several years."
The detainees' petition also claims that another man, Cemar Koc, complained of
pain to a first-shift duty officer at the county jail but did not receive help,
and after complaining to a second-shift officer, lost consciousness.
The signers of the petition are all immigrants who are detained pending review
of their deportation status. The civil rights defense committee mailed letters
to all 93 detainees who signed the petition and the organization received 67
back. Gabriel said the organization has plans to read from letters detailing
immigrant detainee treatment at the county jail at upcoming freeholder meetings.
Nicky Newby, an organizer for the civil-rights group who also spoke Thursday,
noted that "the conditions in the Middlesex County jail are not as bad as other
facilities." The group said a similar detainee petition led in early 2006
decrying poor conditions at the Passaic County jail led to the termination of
that county's contract with ICE and the release of many of its immigrant
detainees.
Questions of adequate medical treatment aside, Newby added that "there is a
constitutional question here." The group contends the big question has to do
with the county being complicit in what the group considers to be
unconstitutional detention of immigrants by the government.
After the Oklahoma bombing in 1996, the government decided that all criminal
detainees had to be placed in criminal facilities with the caveat that they
would not face punitive treatment. Under the 1996 Anti-Terrorism legislation,
aggravated felonies were redefined to include many small matters — like jumping
a subway turnstile.
"The immigrant detainees receive the same level of care as other inmates, and
they're in their own unit," said Rafano of the conditions at the county jail,
which is larger than many other county jails designed to hold inmates on a more
temporary basis.
gracz@thnt.com
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