New Jersey State Prison

History

New Jersey State Prison is a complex that consists of three separate but interconnected physical plants from three different eras of prison construction that took place on the property. The three sections are: The 1798 Penitentiary House; The 1832 Fortress Penitentiary; The 1982 Contemporary prison facility.

The 1798 NJ Penitentiary House, which was the first State Prison in New Jersey and the third in the nation after the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia and Newgate in New York City is also the oldest building still in operation as part of an active, working prison in the United States. This allows NJSP to lay claim to being the oldest continuously operating State Prison in the US. The only surviving portion of the 1798 Penitentiary House is the original Front House, which functioned originally as the living quarters for the Keeper of the State Prison, the four Assistant Keepers (The first 4 men who served in the capacity of what we know today as State Correction Officers), the Armory, administrative office space on the first floor and a row of cells for the confinement of disruptive prisoners in the basement. Since the Penitentiary House stopped housing prisoners within a few years after the 1832 Fortress Penitentiary opened, Auburn Correctional Facility can lay claim to having the oldest continuously operating cell house in the US.

After completion and the relocation of the Penitentiary House inmates to the new Fortress Penitentiary compound in 1836, the 1798 facility alternately served as the Mercer County jail facility during construction of their Workhouse in Titusville, NJ, and then as the State Arsenal until 1929, when all National Guard equipment and services that were based there were transferred to the newly completed ANG base at Sea Girt, at which time control of the empty compound was returned to the State Prison. In 1930, all of the Penitentiary House buildings were demolished, with the exception of the Front House, which was remodeled into a residence for the Keeper of the State Prison, a use for which it is still designated today. The cleared land on which the Penitentiary House cell houses and shop buildings had stood previously were enclosed in a 22 foot high reinforced concrete wall and opened as the Big Yard in 1930. This new, large recreation yard eased the cramped conditions inside the walls of the main compound, which up until that time had limited space to devote to outside recreation.

The second oldest portion of New Jersey State Prison, the Fortress Penitentiary, was constructed between 1832 and 1836, when the inmates from the Penitentiary House next door were moved over. The 1832 facility was constructed on a contiguous plot of land already owned by the State and controlled by the Penitentiary House, under the supervision of the Keeper of the State Prison, and made use of inmate labor during the four years of construction. Consequently, the 1836 Fortress Penitentiary compound is considered to be an addition to the existing State Prison on the property. This assertion is valid because the two compounds coexisted on the same property and were managed and controlled by the Keeper as a prison complex in which the same inmate population worked and were housed. As the State Prison is operated as a unified complex composed of separate distinct compounds today, this conclusion is defensible.

In his 1917 Master's Thesis,published as "History of the Penal, Reformatory and Correctional Institutions of New Jersey" the late Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes, the noted American historian published a history and analysis of the State Prisons, Reformatories and Penal Institutions of NJ up to that time. His work was an analysis of the application of the various penal philosophies and their successes, failures and changes from 1798 to 1917. He separated the Penitentiary House and the 1832 Fortress Penitentiary into two "Systems" in this work. The reader should note that "System" as used by Dr. Barnes was at that time used as we use "Paradym" today- His "First Prison System in NJ" as applied to the Penitentiary House and "Second Prison System in NJ" as applied to the 1832 facility did not describe two separate prisons nor did it indicate two separate prison agencies.

This was a history and description of New Jersey's transition away from the Congregate System of confinement, wherein all persons regardless of age, sex or mental state were simply confined in the Penitentiary House, to the Pennsylvania System of confinement, which consisted of keeping prisoners confined in single cells, completely isolated from other prisoners and the Keepers. The authority and management of the State Prison as an agency did not change - The Keeper as the agency head supervised the Penitentiary House, oversaw and contributed inmate labor to the construction of the Fortress Penitentiary between 1832 and 1836, and supervised the transfer of all inmates from the old to the new compound in 1836 and continued on in the new compound. This construction, transfer and continuation of operations from one side of the property to the other provides a link between the old and new compounds, and demonstrates that the New Jersey State Prison has existed and continuously operated in the same location since 1798. Thus, Dr. Barnes described a change in penal theory and practice, not the abolishion of the old buildings and governing agency and the substitution of a new one. No break in operation or management occurred.

The 1832 facility was expanded several times throughout the 19th Century with new construction adding wings in the years between 1859 and 1907, and larger Shop Hall buildings as well. In 1895-96 when 6 Wing was constructed, the original walls were extended to the corners of the old Penitentiary House compound to enclose that wing as well as the newer Shop Hall building, which heretofore had been outside the main walls.

Capital Punishment was moved from the County Jails to NJ State Prison in 1907, when the first execution was carried out using the new Electric Chair, built by Carl Adams of Trenton, in the shops of his Adams Electric Company. The last such electrocution took place in 1963. In 1979 the Death House (8 Wing), along with the old Hospital wing were demolished to make way for a new Gymnasium.

Ground was broken for the contemporary facility in 1979, and it was completed in 1982. No additions have been made since that time.

Riots

In 1930, the murder of a prison guard and a suicide by an inmate trustee had ripped the cover off secret drug-dealing, abuses and favoritism behind bars. The state Prison Department had promised a house-cleaning, which never happened. Instead, the prison grew as crowded as ever before. By 1952, there were 1,312 cons crowding into a building that was supposed to handled no more than 1,190. As many as four men might be bunked in a 12-by-7½-foot cell. Some cells, ancient and crumbling, were lit and ventilated only by an razor-thin slit in the wall. Armies of enormous, well-fed rats roamed everywhere. In 1952, a series of violent revolts by prisoners occurred in the prison in March, April and October, but they were all successfully quelled after lengthy showdowns between prisoners and officers. On January 20, 1952, the Newark Star-Ledger ran an expose on prison life with the headline: "INSIDE TRENTON PRISON: Dope, sex, booze, dice — and rule by convicts." Among the newspaper's findings, it reported "perversion" was rampant and that one well-connected prisoner was allowed to wear a "zoot suit" in place of his uniform.

In the next few months, inmates got tougher punishments for the most minor of infractions. Some complained of being forced to "stand under the clock" — standing at attention in the prison rotunda for hours at a time. Others griped at not being given forks or knives in the commissary. Just after midnight on March 29, an inmate awoke moaning and begging to be taken to the infirmary. A nurse gave him an aspirin and told him to report sick in the morning. He protested, loudly. As if prearranged — and the riot almost certainly was planned to some degree — men in adjoining cells began to tear apart their metal cots. Then they used the legs to pry open their cell doors in a mass breakout. With startling speed, the 52 cons chased their guards out of the wing, barricaded the entrance and wrecked everything they could lay their hands on. They smashed cell toilets, shredded beds, broke windows and set fires. The inmates were in control of the three-tiered block. Prison guards toting tommy guns ringed the area and blared a loudspeaker message for the men to come out with their hands up. The order was answered with a shower of steel pipes, blackjacks and glass shards. Warden Carty decided to wear down the inmates rather than storm the cell blocks. Guards lobbed in tear gas and trained a spray of fire hoses through the shattered cell windows. The rioters issued no demands until a last, pitiful plea not to be punished. This was denied, and the last bleary-eyed, soaking-wet rebel gave up 46 hours after the disturbance began but the year of riots had just begun.

Electrified by what had happened two weeks earlier, a group of 69 inmates plotted to repeat the riot — this time by seizing the prison print shop. On April 15, they swung into action. One group of cons invaded the print shop, swinging homemade clubs. Another overpowered their two guards and two civilian instructors and threatened to slit their throats. Exhilarated, the convicts went on another orgy of destruction, smashing $100,000 worth of printing equipment. Acting as ringleader was Bernard Doak, a one-time thug in Detroit's notorious Purple Gang who was doing time for kidnapping a New Jersey trooper. Another leader, George Zagorski, had plunged a knife into a prison guard's neck a year earlier, killing him. Their spokesman was armed robber William Dickens, who demanded to personally speak to the state prisons commissioner. The rioters' conditions were a mix of the serious and the seemingly trivial: Carty must resign as warden. Prisoners must not get buzz cuts. The rat infestations and poor sanitation must be ended. End the guards' practice of beating prisoners. At first, the prison officials were obstinate in not granting the captor's demands. But finally, the band of inmates had only one request — to convene a state commission to study the problems in the Trenton prison. Gov. Alfred Driscoll already intended to do that, so he relayed that message to the hostage-takers. On April 18, three days into the siege, they laid down their weapons and gave up.

Eleven of the ringleaders of the first prison riot had been transferred, under heavy security, to Rahway Prison. On April 17, the new convicts instigated another riot, seizing an entire cell block and holding nine guards hostage. They gave up their "demonstration" in five days, claiming they had proved their point. On October 12, another flare-up occurred. About 20 desperadoes stormed the prison's Wing 7, brandishing clubs fashioned from chair legs and shanks cut from sheet metal. They held three guards hostage and tried to seal off the wing from the rest of the prison. By this time, state prison officials had grown impatient with rioting. A team of guards stormed the wing, tommy guns blazing. Two inmates were wounded; none died. When the smoke cleared, investigators discovered the latest outburst was not a protest at all, but an attempt at a mass breakout by sawing through the bars above Federal Street. None of the would-be escapers had made more than a dent in the bars.

Death row

Previously the death row for men was the Capital Sentence Unit (CSU) in the New Jersey State Prison. This unit was first established in 1907. The same prison housed the death chamber, and the first death by electrocution occurred on December 11, 1907.

In 1999 death row inmate Robert "Mudman" Simon, who was convicted of killing a police officer, died during a fight.

The lethal injection chamber at the prison was never used, and the New Jersey Governor repealed the death penalty in December 2007. Therefore, the final execution to take place at the prison was a January 22, 1963 electrocution. The former lethal injection room now serves as an office.

Notable inmates

Media