Juvenile inmate attacks state corrections officer
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP » An inmate has brutally attacked and injured a senior corrections officer at the Juvenile Medium Security Facility, marking the second act of violence to rock a state lockup site this month.
Jonathan Sheaffer suffered several chipped teeth and multiple fractures to his face as a result of the attack and had to be taken to an area hospital for treatment, according to a state corrections officer union.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with State Correctional Police Officer Sheaffer and his family,” PBA Local 105 President Brian Renshaw said Monday in a statement. “On behalf of his fellow PBA Local 105 family, we wish him a quick recovery and we thank him for his dedication to a career that can bring a lot of danger.”
The assault occurred last Friday at a Juvenile Justice Commission jail in Bordentown Township also known as the Johnstone Campus, which houses up to 262 male offenders and 52 female offenders ages 14 to 20 in a structured environment, authorities confirmed.
“We can confirm that an incident took place on March 16 that required a Juvenile Correction Officer to receive medical attention,” Leland “Lee” Moore, a spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office, said Tuesday in an email. “That incident is under investigation.”
The Trentonian asked if the state could provide any information on the injured officer, but Moore said that “JJC cannot provide information on the medical condition of any of its staff.”
Sheaffer, who has been employed with JJC for over 10 years, got punched multiple times in the head during the attack, according to PBA 105. “Responding officers were able to detain the inmate and the injured officer was first treated at the prison by the nurse, then eventually taken to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton to receive additional treatment,” the union said in a news release.
PBA 105, the largest police union in New Jersey representing state corrections officers and other personnel, has highlighted a series of jailhouse assaults that have injured state workers:
• John Laino, a senior corrections officer at New Jersey State Prison, got viciously attacked by an inmate March 4. The officer suffered facial lacerations and fractures in the assault and got rushed to Capital Health Regional Medical Center for treatment.
• Officer Allan Birch was sitting at his station at the Juvenile Medium Security Facility in Bordentown Township on May 25, 2017, when four inmates simultaneously punched, kicked and stomped the officer multiple times in the head and abdomen.
• Corrections Officer Christopher Platt suffered facial injuries requiring surgery on April 9, 2016, when an inmate at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield attacked him.
• Corrections Officer Andrea Berry suffered numerous blows to the head at Southern State Correctional Facility on Jan. 27, 2016, when an irate inmate launched a melee.
“These attacks are real and occur all too often and they need to be addressed now,” Renshaw said Monday in his statement. “It is long overdue. These are blue collar workers who need their paycheck and cannot afford to lose a day’s pay, let alone weeks or months. This isn’t just about the officer, but about their families.”
According to the New Jersey Legislature, 124 state Department of Corrections officers used 4,959 workers’ compensation days in fiscal year 2013 as a result of direct inmate contact injuries and 15 juvenile corrections officers in fiscal year 2017 were on sick leave due to injury on the job.
Under a new bill signed into law last summer by then-Gov. Chris Christie, any state corrections officer, juvenile corrections officer or juvenile detention officer who, in the course of performing the officer’s official duties, suffers serious bodily injury as the direct result of an assault by the inmates or detainees under the officer’s custody or charge shall continue to receive full wages for up to six months or until the officer begins receiving workers compensation for that injury. State law defines “serious bodily injury” as a bodily injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
State politicians changed the law last year, because corrections officers who got hurt during an inmate attack or riot previously had to wait until workers compensation kicked in to receive any pay. Under the old law, it could sometimes take several months before an injured officer received any compensation.
PBA Local 105 lobbied for a program that would compensate lawenforcement employees who get injured while performing official duties, but the labor group says the new sick leave injury law does not go far enough to ensure that all injured officers get covered.
“The legislative language for SLI benefits needs to be made clear and cover injured officers who are attacked by the hands of an inmate,” Renshaw said Monday in his statement. “Our State Correctional Police Officers deserve their full SLI benefits when they are out on extended leave due to an attack by an inmate, period.”
If Sheaffer is forced to take an extended leave due to his workplace assault and if the state does not deem his injuries to be “serious,” his salary payments will stop and it could take weeks before he is paid under workers compensation.
Public records show Sheaffer collects about $73,000 in base annual salary and generally earns tens of thousands of dollars in additional income from overtime pay.
Sheaffer’s workplace, the Juvenile Medium Security Facility Johnstone Campus, houses inmates as young as 14 and as old as 20 who have all been committed to JJC by the courts, according to the JJC website.
“The Johnstone Campus provides education, training and rehabilitation for those residents who are unable to participate in a less secure setting,” the JJC website states. “This diverse group of juveniles possesses serious emotional and behavioral disorders that require a highly structured and secure environment.”