Mayor Ras Baraka has lifted the limited curfew imposed around the Delaney Hall detention center. That was effective as of 9 o clock Monday night. While protests continued last Monday night over the conditions at the facility, there was not a single arrest. At a Tuesday morning press conference outside Delaney Hall, Baraka said he only acted when things really started to get out of hand.
“The curfew was put in place because of the violence that took place in this area, fires that were set, tires burning in the middle of the street,” he said. “There were people being pushed into moving traffic, people were being hit with batons and tear gas.”
As Newark police lifted the barricade that had kept protesters a half-mile away from Delaney Hall since late Saturday night, about 80 protesters marched on the sidewalk chanting “power to the people.”
At the same press conference, Baraka said Newark is adopting a new legal strategy as it continues to fight for the closure of Delaney Hall.
“The reports of detainees suffering miscarriages, receiving inadequate medical care, psychological abuse, it’s troubling, which forces us now to expand our lawsuit against Delaney Hall further than just code enforcement violations,” he said.
Baraka said the city’s attorneys are drafting a lawsuit against the operator of Delaney Hall over health and safety concerns, and will seek through the courts the facility’s immediate closure.
He said the Department of Homeland Security is not telling it like it is about conditions at Delaney.
“The DHS claims that they are working with the city and I dare to say the state to protect Delaney Hall and support its operations. It is completely inaccurate and also deeply offensive to us and to residents of our city as our concerns regarding Delaney Hall only deepen,” said Baraka.
Newark filed a federal lawsuit last year claiming that Delaney’s operators, GEO Group, failed to obtain construction permits and have refused to submit to local inspections — in violation of city and state laws.
The mayor called this is an example of how operators of private prisons use government contracts to shield them from municipal laws.