The state prison in Trenton will remain locked down through tonight following the discovery of a loaded firearm in a secure area Friday, officials said yesterday. The incident comes six weeks after officials found letters from an inmate claiming guns were stashed in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton and three other state facilities in preparation for an uprising. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said the firearm was discovered because of intelligence officials had received. She would not specify the type of weapon or the circumstances in which it was found. Authorities swept the four state prisons in question in late June but failed to turn up anything more than crude weapons. Joseph Malagrino, president of Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 105, one of the officers unions that pushed for the recent search, said the discovery Friday has created a ‘‘very serious and nerve-racking’’ situation. In June, authorities found letters written by high-ranking gang member Lester Alford, who was being held at East Jersey State Prison. Alford claimed 13 guns were hidden in four state prisons as part of a planned revolt by imprisoned members of the Bloods street gang. When asked about Alford’s letters and the new discovery, Malagrino said: ‘‘That’s the scary part about it. It comes to reality a little bit, doesn’t it?’’ Fedkenheuer said the lockdown continues, "which means that there is no movement within the prison.’’ All religious services, recreation activities and outside visits to the Trenton facility have been canceled, she said. However, the incident ‘‘did not rise to the level of notification’’ of residents in the prison’s vicinity, Fedkenheuer said. She said finding a firearm in a state prison was ‘‘unheard of in recent memory.’’ Officials announced the discovery of the firearm late Friday night. ‘‘We’re talking with the department to figure out what transpired,’’ Malagrino said. The inmate’s letters discussed how gang members would launch an uprising triggered by text messages sent to Bloods gang members via mobile phones. No phones were found in the June prison sweeps, officials said. Yesterday Fedkenheuer said she would not address the issue of whether the discovery of a loaded gun validated any of Alford’s claims, citing an ongoing investigation. ‘‘Certainly, the administrators of all the other prisons have been alerted, and their staff. The unions have been alerted,’’ she said, noting the other prisons are not under lockdown. All of the state’s 14 other facilities have been notified, she said. Two sources with knowledge of the investigation said the Corrections Department was tipped off to the weapon by an inmate at Trenton. Alford also mentioned in the confiscated letters an assassination plot against Newark Mayor Cory Booker. The inmate wrote that he told a man involved in the plot that the prison uprising should take place before the ‘‘hit.’’ Police began providing Booker, then mayor-elect, with round-theclock security June 5 after the death threat emerged from conversations between authorities and an Essex County Jail inmate. Fedkenheuer said officers from the Corrections Department’s Special Investigations Division ‘‘share intelligence on an ongoing basis’’ with federal, state, county and municipal authorities. More than a century old, the state prison in Trenton houses some 1,800 prisoners. Only guards in the towers overlooking the prison carry firearms, officials said. The state’s prison system is at maximum capacity, with 27,000 inmates in 15 facilities, and county jails continue to hold many prisoners until a cell is available. Union officials and correctional experts say the prisons remain volatile places where guards must remain vigilant at all times. Inmates outnumber them more than 4-to-1. Tensions led to a New Year’s Day 2005 uprising at Bayside State Prison that left 28 corrections officers injured. The riot prompted the creation of a new legislative task force on prisons and increased scrutiny of the Corrections Department by officials.
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