Mark & Galusha, LLC: Civil Rights Attorneys in Basking Ridge and Bound Brook, New Jersey.

In its most basic form, due process is a right provided to citizens which protects them from unlawful search, seizure, imprisonment, exile and deprivation without grounds for doing so. Along with many of the other civil rights, it is a necessary aspect of living a life free of fear of the government. Yet, when a person violates the law and is, in turn, incarcerated, they lose many of their rights. The guidelines provided within the New Jersey Department of Corrections are far from those asserted at Guantanamo Bay however, inmates are certainly not given the same "due process" that a free citizen of the United States would be.

In the matter of Kevin Brooks v. New Jersey Department of Corrections, Mr. Brooks was housed as an inmate in New Jersey. Mr. Brooks was found guilty of use of a prohibited substance after a urinalysis indicated that Plaintiff had smoked marijuana. As a result of the violation, Mr. Brooks lost 180 days of commutation time and was placed on urine monitoring for the full 180 days. Mr. Brooks claimed that the New Jersey Department of Corrections violated his civil rights by not providing him with due process. Plaintiff argued, among other things, that the staff did not have valid cause for the test and the officer conducting the test was not trained to do so.

During the Appellate Division hearing, Plaintiff was faced with the irrefutable evidence that he had indeed violated prison policy by using a prohibited substance and decided to plea leniency in order to lessen the impact of the crime. Even so, the Court found that as Mr. Brooks was incarcerated and the Department of Corrections followed their own protocol for determining his guilt, that the decision to dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint was valid.

If your right to due process was violated in any way, it is important that you seek legal counsel immediately in order to discuss your options. Mark & Galusha, LLC, are lawyers who handle this type of civil right violations in Basking Ridge and Bound Brook and all other municipalities in Somerset County, New Jersey. Our firm is here to provide sound legal advice. Contact our offices at (908) 626-1001 or 973-440-2311, or simply tell us your story by clicking the "contact us" page.