Videotaped assault of teen at youth jail spurs NJ mom’s demand for justice

A Burlington County mother is demanding accountability from state youth justice officials after her teenage son was seriously injured during an assault Saturday at the New Jersey Training School in Middlesex County and video of the incident appeared on social media.

Zion Green, 18, of Willingboro, suffered a concussion and was coughing up blood after about six inmates ambushed him outside the showers at the juvenile jail, his mother, Gabrielle Covington-Green, told the New Jersey Monitor. He spent two days recovering in the hospital, she said.

The family learned of the assault by coincidence, when her older son spotted the video Saturday while scrolling Instagram, Covington-Green said. She alleges prison officials did not contact her to let her know her son had been assaulted, injured, and hospitalized. She couldn’t reach anyone at the jail until Sunday to learn what had happened.

“My son was being beat. I wanted to die, I just was so upset and frantic,” she said. “These young men, they commit these crimes but they’re still young men with families. Like my son is not what you would call an adult male, so for you not to contact his mother after he’s had a concussion and was throwing up blood?”

Officials wouldn’t allow the family to do a video visit but permitted a phone call Sunday afternoon, when Green — who sounded “very lethargic and out of it” — told his mother he fell unconscious during a beating he estimated lasted about 10 minutes.

“I said, ‘Where were the guards?’ So at this point, I’m yelling, I’m frantic, and he’s like, ‘There was a guard standing right there,’” Covington-Green said. “He said he watched the whole thing. He said at some point, he told them, ‘Y’all, just chill! Just chill!’”

A lieutenant told her Sunday that the officer guarding the area had been redirected elsewhere to check something, leaving the shower area where Green was assaulted briefly unsupervised, Covington-Green said. The lieutenant blamed a staffing shortage, she said.

He also told her six young men were charged in the incident, she added.

The use of phones and social media is prohibited in prisons, so it’s unclear how someone recorded and posted video of the incident. Covington-Green shared a 42-second clip of the incident with the New Jersey Monitor that her older son was able to screen-record from an Instagram story. In the chaotic, soundless clip, multiple young men appear to hit and wrestle a teen Covington-Green identified as her son, with several participants briefly posing and smiling for the camera.

Tara Oliver is a spokeswoman for the Youth Justice Commission, which oversees the state’s juvenile lockups. She said Monday the incident remains under investigation but declined to comment further.

“The safety and security of YJC residents and staff are priorities,” Oliver said.

William Sullivan, who heads the union that represents correctional officers, confirmed an assault occurred outside a dorm’s downstairs shower area that should have been supervised, but he was still awaiting details on the incident, staffing, and the prison’s response.

He agreed understaffing at the state’s youth jails is “a huge problem,” and that the lockup — known as Jamesburg — has struggled to stop youth there from getting contraband cellphones that outsiders have hurled over the fence along the prison’s wooded perimeter.

“I think the executive staff is kind of turning a blind eye. I really don’t think they know what they’re doing over there because we keep bringing up problems, and they don’t really fix them,” Sullivan said.

About 430 youth now are under state supervision between the state’s three youth jails and probation and parole, according to September data. Jamesburg, which can house about 200 boys, is the state’s largest juvenile lockup.

The prison, which opened in 1867, has long been slated for closure and has a history of abuse.

Green has been there for 13 months on a two-and-a-half-year sentence, Green-Covington said.

She decided to share her concerns publicly because she wants her son’s attackers and prison staff held accountable — and doesn’t trust the system to do so.

“I just want my son to not have to do his time in fear. That’s it,” she said. “I wanted to get the word out, because I know how sometimes they cover up. I wanted to get the word out before there was a cover-up.”