New Jersey Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck has announced charges against a local leader of the Latin Kings gang. According to the charges, Frank Blake and his gang created a “hit squad” in New Jersey’s prisons. Blake, the alleged leader of the Elizabeth, NJ, chapter of the ALKQN street gang, didn’t act alone. He allegedly worked with ten others to create a a hit squad in the state’s prison system.
Bruck charged the men with a brutal attack on an incarcerated person at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. The men also planned another attack on an incarcerated person in Northern State Prison in Newark. But New Jersey Department of Corrections stopped that attack.
Additionally, the attack and planned attack were both part of a bigger plan. The hit squad planned to commit a number of other assaults on the gang’s behalf in the state’s prisons. In fact, the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability had already received a state grand jury indictment in September that charged the men with four other assaults in the New Jersey State Prison as well.
New Jersey officials emphasized the safety of prisoners and staff.
“We will not tolerate gang-related violence in our state prisons,” Bruck said. “This indictment reaffirms our commitment to ensuring the safety of both inmates and correctional officers behind the prison walls. I am especially grateful to our Office of Public Integrity & Accountability and DOC’s Special Investigations Division for their partnership on this investigation.”
New Jersey Department of Corrections Acting Commissioner Victoria Kuhn echoed the same in her comments as well. “Central to our mission is a commitment to operate safe and humane facilities,” she said. “We have zero tolerance for those that compromise the integrity of our efforts and applaud the work of the NJDOC’s Special Investigations Division and the OPIA in bringing these individuals to justice.”
If you know about violence in NJ prisons, you can contact the NJ DOC’s Special Investigations Unit at (609) 826-5617. There are other ways to report violence in prison like calling the PREA hotline, talking to the staff or using the prison complaint system.
