A man detained at a New Jersey facility housing civilly committed sex offenders died of a drug overdose earlier this year just before the unit stepped up efforts to crack down on contraband, state officials said.

Tyrone F. Ellison, 46, of Newark, died March 10 in the Special Treatment Unit , which is located next to East Jersey State Prison in Woodbridge.

The unit, run by the state corrections and health departments, holds more than 400 men who served prison time for sex crimes but were deemed too dangerous to release once their sentences ended. They are detained indefinitely under the state’s Sexually Violent Predator Act, with some staying years or decades after their criminal sentences end.

Ellison’s death, attributed to intoxication from a synthetic cannabinoid, was the first fata

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