Fewer than a dozen of the 2261 inmates released from New Jersey jails Wednesday tested positive for coronavirus, yet a republican state senator is involved in possibly running the threat of spreading the virus.
The Corrections Department showed the small number of positive things after Senator Mike Testa, Republican for Cumberland, published a correction note stating that “few inmates who are positive for COVID” came out. be transported to a bus or exercise station to be taken “alone or in a group”.
Testa said it involved that unsuspecting passengers in NJ Transit may be exposed to a newly released inmate who may be positive for coronavirus.
“Many times have become widespread across the country and across the state, what do you think will happen if you place COVID-19 positive inmates on public transport?” Testa said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s irresponsible, it’s beyond negligence, and it’s pro-misconduct. “The state Republican Party joined governor Phil Murphy” getting stuck trying to secretly free positive COVID criminals in their communities. “
But the state says it won’t take COVID-positive inmates to transit centers on Wednesday, and the correctional service has no legal authority to detain others beyond the release dates scheduled under coVID status, correctional spokeswoman Liz Vélez said.
According to Vélez, 11 inmates who test positive for COVID said in an email that they are “not delivered to shipping centers, but get personalized shipping plans. For example, some will be sent on parole where they will be,” will be medically isolated, others will pass on to their families, while others will gain full shipping advantages through the branch to their residence. “
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For its part, NJ Transit has spared no words about who or does not take public transport: “If you are sick, stay home. “
This is set out in the agency’s “Ride to Recovery” plan to provide recommendations to the public on rules, protocols, and expectations when operating on the agency’s bus, exercise, and other vehicle systems.
President and CEO Kevin Corbett, who detailed the agency’s “Journey to Recovery” plan along with Gov. Phil Murphy in June, reiterated this in public meetings.
“NJ Transit can’t do this alone. We rely on consumers to also make their component,” Corbett said at a board assembly that urged passengers to take precautions when returning to trains and buses. “Obviously, if consumers are sick, they should stay home. “
A request to interview Corbett about the Testa memo, the agency’s reaction, and whether its officials were aware of the resolution sparked a reaction from NJ Transit’s press office.
About 12% of all state prisoners are expected to be released Wednesday after a law signed through Murphy in October. Lawmakers, frustrated by Murphy’s administration’s slow reaction to the spread of COVID in prisons, pushed for the law, allowing others in the following year to release it up to 8 months earlier due to the pandemic.
About 3,000 inmates, or nearly 20% of all inmates in New Jersey prisons, are expected to be released under the law in the coming months.
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Most of these detainees are expected to be released on Wednesday. Among them, inmates who are not being cared for through the family circle will be transported through the Department of Corrections to 4 transit centers, said Alexander Shalom, director of promotion and senior suggestion. in the Supreme Court of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. The centers are in Trenton, Pennsauken, Somerville and Newark Penn Station, Shalom said.
Religious and reintegration teams plan to meet with others to link them to social and other resources.
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Shalom said it would be a fear if other people who tested positive were taken to transit stations, but the option would be to locate a safer release plan, he said.
“The solution is not to let other people in,” he said, noting that New Jersey is in the midst of a wave of viruses and instances are increasing. “The solution is to locate the right answers to public aptitude. “
New Jersey prisons had the COVID-related mortality rate in the country, according to an investigation through The Marshall Project, a nonprofit justice newsroom.
When the first test circular was conducted in state prisons between April and July, there were 2,892 positives, according to the Department of Correction, and at least 52 inmates died of the virus. However, positive cases have declined more recently to just a few dozen in the last test run since August 22.
Wednesday’s wave of press releases has raised fears that the state formula, from department re-election facilities to devoted and nonprofit organizations, simply doesn’t track and help others transition to life abroad.
Some re-entry teams and supporters of the law, such as Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, said his skill had been hampered because they may simply not get data from the governor’s workplace about the liberated.
But the ACLU’s Shalom, who lobbied for release, noted that other people would soon come out anyway and with the same social service needs.
“Every user who leaves will leave in the next 8 months no matter what,” he said. “As a society, we want to do a bigger task to get others to have the help they want. It’s true that other people come out of it after a pandemic or not.
Stacey Barchenger is a reporter at the Statehouse in New Jersey. Coleen Wilson covers the NJ Port and Transit Authority for NorthJersey. com. For your unlimited work, subscribe or activate your virtual account today.
Email: cwilson2@gannettnj. com; sbarchenger@gannettnj. com
Twitter: @colleenallreds; @sbarchenger