The Essex County Board of Freeholders voted Wednesday night to advance plans for an independent civilian task force to oversee the troubled Essex County Correctional Facility.

In February, a scathing federal report uncovered major health and safety risks at the facility including spoiled meat, leaking ceilings and moldy showers — and a loaded gun found in an employee bathroom by an immigrant detainee. Allegations of physical and sexual assault against two detainees at the facility are under investigation.

In an interview with NJTV News Senior Correspondent David Cruz, Essex County Freeholder President Brendan Gill said the oversight task force has been a “long time coming.”

“I think what this independent, and the key word is ‘independent,’ task force will allow the county to have, is to have, again, a body made up of members who are able to look at those issues and release reports, give feedback and make sure we’re being as transparent as possible,” said Gill. “And also, so our elected officials and others can have another source to go to to assess our conditions … We want to have as many levers as the legislators at our disposal to make sure that we can avoid some of those things that we’ve seen in these reports.”

Gill said the ordinance includes specific language that prevents anyone who has a relationship with the county from serving on the task force. It also calls for a diverse array of board members, including a formerly incarcerated person, an immigrant advocate and professionals in the correctional field.

Under a $40 million detention contract with ICE, the jail houses nearly 1,000 immigrant detainees along with its regular inmates. The entire facility would be overseen by the task force.

Gill stated he would like to see the county eventually exit that ICE contract altogether but said the process is complicated.

“It’s a federal policy that’s going to exist whether the County of Essex is in this contract or not, and we have a responsibility to those detainees if we end this contract right away, they will be sent to facilities much further from their families, they don’t get access to health care, legal representation, being able to visit their families, so there are real concerns,” he said. “It’s very easy to say, let’s end this contract, which ultimately I think we need to do, but that’s why I’ve called for a responsible wind down of this contract.”