With fresh supplies, we set off again, marching in our canoe hat past warehouses, over overpasses, on tiny sidewalks. Cars gave us narrow berth. One guy remarked, “That’s a big boat!” A few truckers blew their horns. The wind picked up. When it caught the canoe broadside, the stern tended to swing out over the roadway. This wasn’t ideal. It was tough on the shoulders. Also, it risked collision with the semis rumbling by. I was glad we enlisted Brent, who is six feet two, and strong.

A sign announced that we’d crossed into Secaucus. Underneath, it said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I felt that we were. As we walked past industrial parks and waste-management lots, a man called out, “I’ve got a canoe just like this!” His name was Gregory. He was a welder. He takes his craft on the Hackensack once a week, to go crabbing. “I cook them up, make some gravy,” he said. “Some nice fucking Italian shit.” (On account of the river’s elevated levels of cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal, and high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls from industrial waste, the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection strongly recommends against this.) But Gregory had recently grown tired of life on the sea. “I’m trying to sell it,” he said, of the canoe. “You want it?” As we chatted, I’d been holding our canoe above my head, bracing it against the wind. I told him that we were good on canoes for the moment.

We portaged on, over the New Jersey Turnpike, through downtown Secaucus, over a narrow pedestrian bridge above Route 3. We made it to the motel in less than two hours. The Hackensack appeared behind the parking lot, surprisingly broad and sparkly. Phragmites reeds lined the water, and the American Dream mall loomed over the far bank. It didn’t smell too bad. Except for the cars roaring overhead on a nearby bridge, a continuation of Route 3, it was pretty peaceful.

As the captain, I took the front. Brent steered in the back. Diego navigated, and provided ballast, in the middle. We were heading north, but Brent had us haul due west, so the vegetation on the far bank would provide a windbreak. We had the river to ourselves. One concern of mine was corpses. Bob Sullivan has found that bodies have been dumped in the Meadowlands since at least the Revolutionary War. People think Jimmy Hoffa is there. But we didn’t see any. Brent took us on a scenic detour of an inlet. We saw a beautiful white egret. There were ospreys, hawks, and a lot of tree swallows. The view was uncommonly broad, and the city skyline poked out of the eastern sky. I’d never experienced a more pleasant commute, though it wasn’t perfect. When we lifted our paddles from the water, the wind sent it spraying back at us. It was surprisingly warm. Some of it splashed in my mouth.

The trip took fifteen minutes, plus the detour. When we landed, Brent pulled out a camping stove and made coffee. The crew stayed with the canoe, and I finished the trek solo, navigating down a sparsely travelled access road. I knew these parts. I’m from New Jersey, and I grew up with season tickets to the Jets. Back then, similarly frustrated with the difficulties of the commute, my dad would park off the shoulder of the Route 3 off-ramp, in the mud next to a thicket of phragmites. The parking ticket was cheaper than a parking pass, and there were enough gaps in the cars whizzing by that we could scamper across. The authorities are stricter now. I strolled up Outwater Lane and turned north. I crossed the Turnpike for the second time. (Around the Meadowlands, the Turnpike turns confusingly fractal.) I turned onto something called Road D. It wasn’t so bad. Near the stadium, a worker on a cart zipped by, transporting what looked like propane tanks. His name was Mariano. He gave me a ride to the credentialling tent. From start to finish, the journey took less than three hours.

• A corrections officer was fired and two were suspended following an inmate’s murder at Burlington County Jail.
• The incident was one of 817 major disciplinary actions against New Jersey law enforcement officers detailed in a new report.
• The report also noted terminations of other South Jersey corrections officers for offenses including excessive force and sexual misconduct.

One corrections officer was fired and two were suspended after an inmate was slain at Burlington County Jail in November 2024, according to a just-released report.

The fired officer, Nicholas Morton, failed to conduct required security tours during the hours of the alleged murder. He also didn’t tell his superiors that the attacker and his victim had previously asked to be placed in different cells, said the June 12 report from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

This incident was just one of 817 major disciplinary actions against 654 law enforcement officers, the agency says, detailing these findings in their 560-page report.

Former officer sentenced: Swedesboro man smuggled contraband into jail

It notes the terminations or other departures of at least a dozen corrections officers at South Jersey lockups.

That includes two officers accused of using excessive force on inmates in Camden County Jail, two accused of having sexual relationships with girls at a state juvenile facility and a prison officer who exposed himself for a selfie while on duty.

In the Burlington County case, Rondale Holloman, now 39, allegedly murdered his 74-year-old cellmate, Kenneth Bulle, in November 2024.

Hollomon told investigators that he punched Bulle, then strangled him with a T-shirt for approximately eight minutes. He said Bulle crawled back into his bed and breathed “very heavily” until he died, according to a probable cause statement.

Holloman said he waited “a few hours” before telling corrections officers about the attack at approximately 2:30 a.m. Nov. 15.

An internal investigation found that Morton had failed to conduct at least two security tours at half-hour intervals during his shift from Nov. 14 into Nov. 15.

“It was also discovered that Officer Morton neglected to inform his immediate supervisors that both inmates made a request to move out of the cell away from each other,” the report says.

Two other corrections officers, Sgt. Terrance Benson and Lieutenant Jonathan Carroll, received 15-day suspensions.

Benson, the shift sergeant at the time of Bulle’s death, “neglected to conduct a full and complete security tour of the facility,” the report states.

Carroll, the shift commander, “neglected to correct his subordinates, who did not call the code for the incident,” it says. That failure “delayed the custody and medical staff from responding to the scene with the proper equipment.”

Carroll also did not make “immediate corrective action on several entries in logbook that were made by his supervisors and officers on duty,” the report adds.

Holloman is currently awaiting trial on a murder charge. The charge is an allegation, and he has not been convicted in the case.

Holloman and Bulle were being held on charges stemming from violent attacks.

Bulle, a Mount Holly resident, allegedly stabbed a sleeping woman several times with a kitchen knife Oct. 1, 2024.

Holloman, a Burlington Township resident, was in jail for allegedly slamming a woman to the ground, then punching and kicking her during a domestic incident in September 2024.

Here are some other notable South Jersey incidents involving corrections facilities:

Camden County Jail

• Two officers were fired for using excessive force. The report says Tee Lormia struck an inmate in the head with a roundhouse kick, while Nicholas Taylor lifted an inmate from behind and slammed him to the ground. A third officer, Yamalis Diaz, was fired after pleading guilty to shoplifting.