Essex County has joined the growing number of municipalities, legislators and law enforcement calling for an end to the HALT Act. That’s short for the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement.
Since the law took effect in 2022, there has been an alarming 169 percent increase in inmate-on-inmate violence, a 76 percent increase in inmate-on-staff violence and 32 percent increase in contraband in prisons across the state