Michael B. Jackson's Blog

TRENTON - In New Jersey, the inmates are almost literally running the asylums. Actually they’re former inmates and they’re running the state’s juvenile correctional facilities.

Officials from the state Juvenile Justice Commission confirmed yesterday that a woman appointed recently as the acting superintendent of a correctional facility for juvenile females is an ex-con who spent seven years in state prison on an assortment of robbery and theft charges.

That woman, Francine Williams, has been appointed by JJC Executive Director Veleria Lawson as the temporary head of the Female Secure Care and Intake Facility in the Hayes Building, a part of the state’s highest security juvenile corrections center in Bordentown, and law enforcement insiders say her situation only represents the tip of the iceberg.

A JJC source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the hiring of ex-convicts to fill civilian positions within the agency is rampant, with many of the ex-offenders having committed serious crimes, and many holding either positions of supervision or those that bring them in close contact with the juvenile offenders.

Another JJC employee fitting that bill is Otto Krupp, who in 1978 stabbed a girlfriend to death in Cherry Hill. According to the commission insider, Krupp now works teaching anger management techniques to juvenile inmates.

Details on Williams’ and Krupps’ criminal pasts are readily available online through the state Department of Corrections Web site, though unlike the majority of current and former prisoners, mugshot photos of the two are not included.

As law enforcement officials, guards in juvenile facilities cannot have any criminal record whatsoever, but JJC spokesperson Sharon Lauchaire said having a criminal record does not automatically preclude someone from obtaining civilian employment with her agency, and said specifically of Williams that she should be seen as a role model for troubled young girls.

“It’s not as if we were not aware of it. The executive director was fully aware of Ms. Williams’ background”, Lauchaire said of her boss, Lawson.

The spokesperson said Williams has left her life of crime behind her and become a rehabilitation success story.

“She has completely turned her life around,” she said. “She has her bachelor’s degree, her master’s degree, and she’s a very, very successful professional who has been involved in successful programs at the Juvenile Justice Commission.”

The anonymously speaking JJC insider thought differently.

“They’re convicts and they’re around juveniles,” the source said. “If it were with adults, that might be different.”

Williams, Lauchaire said, was first hired by the JJC in 1996, and currently holds the title of equal employment opportunity officer, earning over $80,000 a year according to state records. Lauchaire said Williams will continue in that position while holding the additional role of assistant superintendent, during a temporary leave by the current head of the facility.

“There’s no better role model for our girls,” Lauchaire said of Williams. “For somebody who has been able to turn their life around and have been successful, is exactly what we want to show the girls in our program that this is possible.”

Corrections records show Williams had several aliases at the time of her arrest, and was incarcerated from 1984 to 1991 following convictions on numerous robbery and theft charges from Camden and Gloucester counties. Though she served less than seven years in jail, she could have faced much more time if she were held to the maximum potential sentences for each count, which individually carried terms as high as 20 years

Lauchaire didn’t immediately have information available last night regarding Krupp, who served 21 years of a life sentence on murder and related charges

Krupp was hired by the JJC in 2004, only three years after he was paroled, and is now making about $40,000 a year with the official title of senior youth worker at the JJC’s New Jersey Training School, according to public records.

At the time of what was described as his grisly and brutal murder of Cathleen Cerbi Muir in 1978, Krupp worked as a teacher in Cherry Hill. When he was convicted, Krupp’s state teaching certificate was revoked, but he applied to have it reinstated upon his release.

State officials denied Krupp’s attempts at reinstatement, including one where he attempted to secure permission to teach only in correctional settings, according to state records. Part of his argument stated that he had been teaching anger management courses to juveniles at the JJC from 1998 until his parole in 2001, through a special work release program.

Though he was continually denied any teaching certificate from the state, Krupp was hired by the JJC anyway and is continuing his anger management instruction

The agency insider said it’s common practice for the JJC to hire uncertified people, grant them titles of counselor or teacher’s aide, then have them do the same type of work that a certified teacher would conduct.

“They’re running their own classes and acting in the capacity of a teacher,” the source said.

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:56:00 +0000

The Trentonian

JJC to review hiring practices

Thursday, May 8, 2008 By Joe D'Aquila

TRENTON Officials from the state Juvenile Justice Commission announced they will begin a review of their hiring standards, after it was revealed yesterday that the agency employs several ex-convicts in supervisory roles and in positions that come in direct contact with their underage inmates.

The move to examine the idea of hiring felons comes after a Page 1 story in The Trentonian, which detailed what’s been described as a wide-spread practice inside the agency.

Officials said they would review each formerly incarcerated employees situation on a case-by-case basis, and apparently they’ll have a lot of them to sort through, as more examples of felons on the outside of the JJC’s cells came to light yesterday.

Along with the formerly criminal employees already exposed, commission officials confirmed the agency pays substantial salaries to several other ex-cons, at least two of whom were killers.

“We are commencing a review of the policy to determine what standards are appropriate to demonstrate that rehabilitation has taken place,” said JJC spokesperson Sharon Lauchaire. “The review will also include an examination of the appropriateness of the individual’s work assignment.”

However, Lauchaire reiterated her agency’s contention that a criminal record doesn’t preclude a candidate from employment.

“The executive director (Veleria Lawson) has to approve the hiring of anyone with a criminal background,” she said. “There are certain items that are reviewed, the nature and degree of the offense, when the crimes occurred, they have to provide evidence of rehabilitation, and we look at the relationship of the crimes to what their intended position with us is going to be.”

The spokesperson said the review of their policies will look for ways to categorize and formalize the process of deciding which people with what types of criminal pasts would be acceptable for which specific positions within the commission.

After the review is concluded, it’s unknown what position a person who invades the home of an elderly couple, then robs them, ties them up and kills them by burning them alive as they set their house on fire would be eligible for, but as of right now they can apparently find employment as an executive assistant and earn more than $90,000 a year.

That’s the previous crime committed and current title held by Matthew Sheridan, who was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 20 in 1969 for the double murder of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay Clarkson in Tuckahoe, Cape May County, according to articles published in the New York Times. Two accomplices were convicted with Sheridan, 17-year-old Dave Willetts, who was tried as an adult and sentenced to life, and 33-year-old Robert Conklin, who originally was sentenced to death.

Records for Willetts and Sheridan weren’t available on the state Department of Corrections Web site, but Conklin was listed. His sentence was commuted to life, and he was paroled in 2004, nearly two full decades after Sheridan was released and hired by the JJC in 1985.

Lauchaire said he works in the JJC’s juvenile parole and transitional services office, and his salary was available through online public records.

Another killer employed at the JJC is Joe Taylor, a former New Jersey State Trooper, who was charged with murder in the 1984 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend’s new lover.

Taylor was sentenced to 20 years, convicted of manslaughter, after his attorneys convinced a jury that their client acted out of passion when he shot 24-year-old Gardner Stewart in the head.

Taylor was hired by the JJC in 1994 and is employed as a program development specialist in their chaplaincy services unit, according to Lauchaire. Public records show that he collects a yearly salary of more than $75,000 but earned over $90,000 in 2007.

The hiring of ex-convicts to watch over juvenile offenders first came to light with word that a recent appointment to a supervisory position had a criminal background.

That employee was Francine Williams, the JJC’s equal employment opportunity officer, who has been appointed to simultaneously fill a temporary vacancy as superintendent of a female unit at the Juvenile Medium Security Facility in Bordentown, the JJC’s highest security juvenile jail.

Williams was hired in 1996, just five years after serving a seven-year sentence on robbery and theft charges stemming from incidents in Camden and Gloucester counties.

Along with Williams, officials also confirmed the employment and criminal background of Otto Krupp, another JJC murderer, who’s a senior youth worker, teaching anger-management techniques to juveniles.

Krupp served more than 20 years of the life sentence he received for stabbing his girlfriend Cathleen Cerbi Muir to death in 1978. He began his career of counseling minors in 1998, through a work-release program, while still incarcerated. Lauchaire said he was officially hired by the JJC in 2004, three years after his parole.

Despite the questionable appearance cast by the employment of ex-cons in positions overseeing juveniles, and the pledge to re-examine the policy, Lauchaire maintained the stance that her agency’s hiring of those with criminal pasts is in keeping with their stated goal of helping those in their charge re-enter a productive life after incarceration.

“The idea of rehabilitation and giving someone an opportunity to move on with their lives, goes along with the concept of reentry, and that is something that we support,” Lauchaire said. “That’s a concept that we’re involved with with our residents, in terms of having them re-enter society as productive members of society.”

MBJ Ambushed by JJC Coward

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Monday, June 1, 2009

Juvie worker: Ex-druggie judge went light on teen who assaulted guard, By SULAIMAN ABDUR-RAHMAN

BORDENTOWN CITY — A teenage inmate who pummeled a guard at a detention facility was given a ridiculously light punishment, according to a source bent on exposing the disciplinary judge as a former druggie who’s sympathetic to convicts.

The 14-year-old inmate “beat (the guard) over the head with a trash can and pummeled him while he was down,” the caller said of the May 17 incident at the Juvenile Medium Security Facility on West Burlington Street.

 The caller was a Juvenile Justice Commission worker who wished to remain anonymous. He called to “expose” the judge in the case, Michael B. Jackson, an admitted former drug addict and convict who sanctioned the 14-year-old in this assault case to five days of room restriction.

Jackson said he’s not authorized to comment on specific disciplinary cases he has reviewed, but he told The Trentonian that he’s fully qualified for the job.

 “I’m supported by my supervisors as far as what I’m doing”, Jackson told The Trentonian last Friday. “Everything I did was within the rules. ... I worked for JJC for 23 years in all capacities. My qualifications are up to par as far as doing the job.”  

The 56-year-old veteran JJC worker conceded that he served time in prison for drug possession. But, he said, “that was 30 years ago as a young man.” He said he ran the streets of Newark as a youngster and was a drug addict.  

Jackson admitted that he views prisons as modern-day plantations for inmates.  Speaking on behalf of black men, Jackson said, “We go in and out (of prison). Sometimes we think we’re supposed to be there. It’s a slave mentality, which creates a plantation situation for us.” 

 The battered guard was identified in documents as M. Gotshall. He was hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries, said the caller.

The Trentonian received faxed documents from inside sources that show the inmate was charged with fighting, assault with a weapon and three separate counts of assault.

A JJC spokesperson said the agency has “no comment” on the incident.

The incident began when the 14-year-old lashed out at Gotshall, according to the caller, who said the inmate assaulted two more guards who had rushed over to help their colleague. Sources said the teenager is in JMSF for rape.

He received a sanction punishment of five days of room restriction, which essentially places the inmate in solitary confinement for a specified amount of time before allowing the inmate to congregate with the general jail population, according to the faxed documents.

The anonymous caller said he was calling on behalf of JJC employees who disagree with, and oppose, Jackson and his sanctions and rulings. The caller also said he wants Jackson, “exposed” for coddling inmates, saying the judge should have given the 14-year-old more than five days of room restriction.

The caller further said Jackson shouldn’t be allowed to work as a disciplinary judge because he used to be an inmate and published books he described as being sympathetic to convicts.

 Jackson said prison is understandably “unfair” to inmates, and he said that should motivate people to live upstanding lives to avoid having to go to jail.  

“You have to fight the system by staying out and doing the right thing,” he said. “Stay out of the prison — that’s what I talk about.”  

JMSF has the capacity to serve 118 male offenders, according to the state’s Web site, which says the facility houses inmates ages 14 to 20.

“JMSF provides training, control and rehabilitation for those young offenders who are unable to participate in a less secure setting,” the state’s Web site says, describing the inmates as having “serious emotional and behavioral disorders that require a highly structured and secure environment”.

Bloods ex-general & fraud offer reward for girl’s killer; Black Panther compares Bloods to Boy Scouts - The Trentonian News: Serving Trenton and surro

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:17:00 +0000

Bloods ex-general & fraud offer reward for girl’s killer; Black Panther compares Bloods to Boy Scouts - The Trentonian News: Serving Trenton and surrounding communities. (trentonian.com)

Juvie worker: Ex-druggie judge went light on teen who assaulted guard - The Trentonian News: Serving Trenton and surrounding communities. (trentonian.

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:15:00 +0000

Juvie worker: Ex-druggie judge went light on teen who assaulted guard - The Trentonian News: Serving Trenton and surrounding communities. (trentonian.com)

N.J. DOC chief responds to critical report on gangs in prisons - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:50:00 +0000

N.J. Department of Corrections chief responds to critical report on gangs in prisons - NJ.com

YouTube - Poetry from New Jersey State Prison

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:53:00 +0000

YouTube - Poetry from New Jersey State Prison

YouTube - "Thriller" (original upload)

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:56:00 +0000

YouTube - "Thriller" (original upload)

Drugs Rampant in Prison

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Hanford Sentinel

State forum in Atlantic City aims to help women with criminal past

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:52:00 +0000

State forum in Atlantic City aims to help women with criminal past

Newark launches investigation into police disciplinary procedure - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:13:00 +0000

Newark launches investigation into police disciplinary procedure - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

MAJORITY LEADER: NJ NEEDS REVAMPED PRISON PROGRAMS

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Despite crime woes, 80 percent approve of Booker - Newark, New Jersey Local News | Newark Live - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Despite crime woes, 80 percent approve of Booker - Newark, New Jersey Local News | Newark Live - NJ.com

Northern State Prison inmate killed in fire identified as Mercer resident - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:37:00 +0000

Northern State Prison inmate killed in fire identified as Mercer resident - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

Prison debt paid, jobs not available - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:34:00 +0000

Prison debt paid, jobs not available - NJ.com

'Counting the costs' focuses on changes needed inside state's prisons - Newark, New Jersey Local News | Newark Live - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:32:00 +0000

'Counting the costs' focuses on changes needed inside state's prisons - Newark, New Jersey Local News | Newark Live - NJ.com

Prison system in need of correction - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Prison system in need of correction - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

N.J. program targets vets in trouble with law | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/12/2008

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:23:00 +0000

N.J. program targets vets in trouble with law | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/12/2008

Assembly Majority Speaker Bonnie Watson Coleman

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Lawmaker, mother of ex-cons drafting legislation designed to reform criminals, system - The Trentonian News: Serving Trenton and surrounding communiti

mbj@jointfx.com (mbj) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Lawmaker, mother of ex-cons drafting legislation designed to reform criminals, system - The Trentonian News: Serving Trenton and surrounding communities. (trentonian.com)