Escapes from N.J. halfway houses put spotlight on Christie
For the sister and father of a 21-year-old Garfield woman allegedly killed by a convict who fled a halfway house, a report Sunday that thousands have escaped from such places in New Jersey has rekindled their fury and frustration at a system that failed them and a governor whose top political adviser oversees the company that runs these private facilities.
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But allegations of widespread escapes from a privately run halfway house system — whose primary contractor has deep connections to Christie, with frequent campaign contributions to him as well as top Democrats and other state officials — could become a potentially powerful political crisis for the governor, perhaps the greatest of his administration.
Roughly 5,100 inmates have escaped from the state’s halfway houses since 2005, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing a 10-month investigation that found they have “mutated into a shadow corrections network” where drugs, gang activity and violence often go unchecked. The report noted that the senior vice president of Community Education Centers — the operator of the halfway house where the Garfield woman’s accused murder lived — is William J. Palatucci, a friend, adviser and former law partner of Christie.
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Nonetheless, one respected political analyst in New Jersey called the stakes for Christie on a national level “enormous.” In fact, Montclair State University political science Professor Brigid Harrison, who writes frequently on New Jersey politics, said the revelations could become something akin to a “Willie Horton” predicament for him, recalling the attack ads run by the 1988 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign against former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis over a prison furlough program in which Horton committed rape and robbery during his release.
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