For many of the more than 2,200 state prisoners set free this past Wednesday, it was a good day, or good thing. They were freed early due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For one, though, it did not go as planned, Trenton officials say.
James Magilton, 57, suffers from cancer, Parkinson’s and needs a wheelchair to get around.
On Friday morning, after two days at a Bordentown motel, his room was no longer being paid for and the new Trenton resident had nowhere to go, and nobody to call –– no family or friends.
Eventually, he got through to Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora’s office, who dispatched city Health and Human Services employees workers to help him. They found Magilton sitting in the motel’s lobby, alone, according to city spokesman Will Skaggs and mayoral aide Rick Kavin.
On Friday afternoon, Catholic Charities stepped in and paid for Magilton’s room. Trenton employees were unsure what the issue was, but they’re in Magilton’s corner now.
He’s a city resident now, so starting Monday, city employees –– Health and Human Services working with the new Office of Returning Citizens –– will start the process to get Magilton’s Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, established, and find him long-term, disability-accessible housing.
Trenton highlighted Magilton’s case to highlight their argument that the prisoners should have been released in waves, so social agencies, nonprofits and local government agencies were not swamped.
Kavin said he talked to officials from other municipalities and the consensus was, “We were caught off guard.”
The state has been working on the prisoner release for months, and Gusciora said he supports the program — just not all at once. How many others like Magilton are out there?
"I would have rather had them in staggered terms, so we could successfully transition them into society,” Gusciora said Wednesday, just after greeting some of the prisoners, dropped off at the train station in the city. One was Magilton.
Magilton was just a few weeks away from his eventual release from prison, on drug and weapons charges, records show. He was dropped off with all his earthly belongings and believes the state did not prepare him, he told NJ Spotlight on Wednesday.
“The prison, they just condemned me to failure, and I am scared to death,” he told Spotlight. “I do not know what’s going on with me tonight, I don’t know what’s going on with me tomorrow.”
State officials said the inmates will be given temporary housing and will be connected with agencies to assist them, and there were several representatives on hand to assist them at the train station in Trenton. A short time after his interview, Spotlight reported that the New Jersey Reeentry Corporatation’s Toms River office secured Magilton temporary housing.
Trenton officials are not sure what broke down with the motel. The state Department of Corrections
Magilton, before he got to the motel, said he was overwhelmed by the agencies reaching out to help him. “It’s overwhelming, I am telling you, I get a little choked up with it,” he told Spotlight.
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.
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