Back in 2010 we filed a lawsuit against Community Education Centers, which alleged that our client was brutally beaten, almost to death, by a resident at one of their facilities in New Jersey. The client, also a resident at the facility, suffered severe neurological injuries from the attack. Although the perpetrator of the crime clearly was responsible for the attack, we felt that the facility was also to blame, for various reasons, based upon our experience as personal injury attorneys in other cases of negligent security and our review of the preliminary facts. Although the case settled before our investigation was complete, the allegation was that the facility failed to property secure the premises, failed to install proper cameras and other security devices, failed to adequately train their staff, etc.

But during our investigation we also learned that Community Education Centers has been involved in many other civil actions in several other states. Some were quite disturbing, alleging that people had died in community Education Center facilities due to neglect, negligent supervision, negligent security, etc.

Recently, we were happy to learn from an article that Senator Frank Lautenberg has called for a federal probe of Community Education Centers. He reportedly wrote to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons with his concerns. This was in the wake of a New York Times probe regarding these facilities. Thankfully, Gov. Christie called for better inspections and oversight of the facilities. But we can only hope that Community Education Center facilities and other similar halfway houses improve their track records on safety and preventing escape.