Inmate was beaten for ‘going away party’ as officer watched, feds say. He’s sentenced
A former New Jersey corrections officer will spend more than a year behind bars after federal prosecutors said he looked on as an inmate was held down and violently beaten by other inmates.
It was one of several inmate assaults Joshua Hand and other officers witnessed, but didn’t try to stop, at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, about a 45-mile drive southwest from Atlantic City, according to court documents.
The inmate, who was about to be released from custody, was beaten as part of his “going away party” in December 2019, court documents say, McClatchy News previously reported.
This was a “common form of abuse” against Bayside inmates who were nearly finished serving their sentences, according to information filed in court.
Officers at the prison would recruit “inmates to physically assault the inmate receiving the ‘going away party’” in an area of the prison’s kitchen, the filing says. Sometimes, officers would join in on the beatings, according to prosecutors.
The same day Hand watched other inmates restrain and assault the one inmate in December 2019, he similarly didn’t intervene when a fellow officer beat a different inmate with a broomstick, prosecutors said.
Hand was obligated to report both assaults to his supervisors and medical personnel, but didn’t, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
On Nov. 5, a federal judge sentenced Hand, 35, of Millville, to one year and eight months in prison on charges of depriving the inmates of their right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, according to prosecutors.
Hand’s defense attorney, Louis M. Barbone, didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Nov. 6.
Dozens of corrections officers accused of abuse in New Jersey
The New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller announced in a June 6 report that the state Department of Corrections has failed to properly investigate cases in which corrections officers were accused of abuse.
The report involved a review of 46 cases at three state prisons, including Bayside, from January 2018 through August 2022, McClatchy News previously reported.
The information charging Hand with violating the two inmates’ civil rights says that, in 2019, at Bayside, “victim-Inmates at the Prison were assaulted in a cruel, unusual, arbitrary, and capricious manner for actual, perceived, and fabricated violations of the Prison’s rules and customs” and that “there was no legitimate law enforcement purpose for the assaults.”
The beatings reportedly witnessed by Hand
In December 2019, Hand watched another officer initiate the “going away party” beating against the one inmate when the officer called the man into the officers’ quarters inside Bayside’s kitchen area, according to prosecutors.
After the man arrived, the officer engaged him in conversation before the assault ensued, court documents say.
The room’s exit door was then blocked and several inmates launched an attack, according to prosecutors.
Hand did nothing while some of the inmates held the man down to the floor and others punched his torso, arms and legs, according to prosecutors.
The injured inmate didn’t report the assault because he “feared” his upcoming release date would be postponed, prosecutors said.
Later, Hand watched, but didn’t step in, as the same officer who called the first inmate into the room beat another inmate with a broomstick, according to the information.
“Without provocation,” John Makos “struck (the man) in the legs multiple times with a broomstick” as Hand “remained near the assault and had a reasonable opportunity to intervene,” the court filing says.
In May 2023, Makos of Millville was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on a charge of conspiring with others to deprive inmates of their right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Hand pleaded guilty in connection with failing to intervene in the two inmate assaults on Feb. 26, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that day.
According to the state comptroller’s report, in 22% of the 46 cases involving New Jersey corrections officers accused of abuse against an incarcerated person, no eyewitnesses were interviewed, McClatchy News previously reported.
“Key evidence” was missing in 13% of the cases, according to the report.
Hand’s prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to prosecutors.
This story was originally published November 6, 2024 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Inmate was beaten for ‘going away party’ as officer watched, feds say. He’s sentenced."
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