A Vineland man has become the latest person to commit suicide in a South Jersey jail.
Cumberland County deputy administrator Kim Wood said Gregory Kubiak, 32, of Vineland was found by staff at the jail after attempting to commit suicide Saturday. Staff at the jail attempted CPR on Kubiak, and he was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died Tuesday night.
Kubiak's death comes a month after the United States Department of Justice came to the facility to investigate the care inmates with mental health received while incarcerated. The Department of Justice declined to comment about the most recent incident.
PBA Local 231 is the corrections officer union in Cumberland County. The union's attorney, Stuart Alterman, has been a vocal critic in the past about the current jail administration. Alterman said the jail administration is trying to place the blame on the corrections officers instead of the current policies in place.
"The current administration is more about scapegoating and making themselves look like they do everything right than actually running the jail in a professional manner," Alterman said.
Alterman questions whether the present administration thinks it is doing the right thing, or if it isn't informed on how to adequately train officers on how to be handling mental health issues.
"How come all of these suicides didn't occur with the prior wardens and former staff before many of the experienced staff being forced to retire, and before the administrations changing?" Alterman said. "With warden (Glenn) Saunders and (Bob) Bilicki were present, we didn't have to deal with the volume of suicides that we are dealing with today."
The Cumberland County Jail is not the only facility that has seen a similar trend. The Atlantic County Jail has had six suicides in a span of three years. Both jails have multiple lawsuits against the counties. The families are being represented by attorney Conrad J Benedetto.
"Based on the number of inmates that have died over the past few years while incarcerated in county jails up and down the state of New Jersey, we think there is a public health crisis in the state. It seems that many counties apparently lack the ability to, or interest in, tending to the mental health needs of some of its own citizens," Benedetto said in a previous interview with NJ Advance Media. "Unfortunately, we are not surprised by news of another inmate death at a New Jersey county jail. We are hopeful that the many lawsuits we and other law firms have brought against New Jersey counties regarding these inmate deaths will help shine a spotlight on this crisis and put an end to it."
Cumberland County declined to comment about Kubiak's death.
Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips