Dear New Jersey Department of Corrections,

This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
In March 1977 Eric Hackney was serving a three year NJ state prison sentence for possession of one ounce of marijuana. He and I were both incarcerated at the minimum security prison farm unit of Leesburg State Prison in Cumberland County (now called Bayside State Prison). Both of us had already been granted parole dates by the Parole Board and were to be released that same year, as I recall.
In or around the beginning of March 1977 a majority of the prisoners, over 350 of the 354 or 356, on the Farm Unit decided to go on a work strike to protest the living and working conditions on the Farm Unit. The prisoners who worked on the farm were in contact with farm animals, cows and pigs, and were unable to wash their clothes every day because the washing and/or drying machines were often out of order. They had to were the same soiled and offensive smelling clothes from day to day. This was but one of the many reasons given by the prisoners, which were written down and submitted to the Farm Unit prison officials prior to the strike.
Although Eric Hackney and I did not work on the Farm Unit, but were instead transported by bus back to the main prison to attend college classes, we both decided to join the other prisoners in their protest as a sign of solidarity.
On the day of the strike, a workday, 354 of the 356 prisoners refused to leave their barracks and go to their work assignments. Eric and I also refused to get on the bus and go to our college classes. I do not now recall the exact date, only that it was in the first week of March and that it was a workday.
I request all the records in the possession of the Dept of Corrections in relation to this killing.

Yours faithfully,

C. Antonio Alvarez-Moreno