The state Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling allowing Cumberland County to close its jail and transfer detainees to neighboring county jails. The decision was announced Thursday.
The court denied a request from the state Office of the Public Defender to review a ruling from two lower courts allowing the county to close its jail. The defenders filed a legal complaint late last year arguing the closure would impose an undue burden on its attorneys to meet with detainees who needed lawyers.
A request to the Office of the Defender for comment Friday was not returned.
The high court decision clears the way for the county to begin shutting down its detention facility as it had planned to do last November as a cost-saving measure.
“Now that the public defenders’ legal roadblocks are removed, we will proceed with implementation of our jail closure plan by transferring detainees to other correctional facilities and constructing a holding facility at the site of the current county jail,” County Commission Director Joseph Derella said in a statement Thursday. “Our decision to utilize shared corrections facilities will protect the health, safety and rights of Cumberland County’s detainees while saving our taxpayers millions [of] dollars a year for years to come.”
The county had secured $65 million in bond financing to build a new jail to replace its aging structure in Bridgeton. But a state elimination of cash bail and the release of low-level offenders during COVID-19 emergency orders from Gov. Phil Murphy dramatically reduced the detainee population, county officials said. As a result, they decided to scrap plans for a new jail in the summer of 2020, even after already spending $13 million on site plans and pouring a concrete foundation.
The closure would also eliminate up to 115 full-time county positions, most of them corrections officers. Their union also sued the county over the plan but the complaint was dismissed in Superior Court.
“This is a very tough pill to swallow, for our members and their families,” Victor Burmudez, the union president, said in a statement Thursday. “The stakes are so high, especially when everything is on the line. We’re hopeful that there will be other opportunities for our members. Remember, more than 70 officers and their families are impacted by this decision.”
The county is in the process of trying to place inmates in neighboring jails, Jody Hirata, the deputy county administrator, said Friday.
But another lawyer who has sued the county over conditions at the facility thinks it won’t immediately shut down.
“Our case continues because it will take about a year to get the inmates relocated,” Jeffrey Pollock, an attorney representing detainees in a class-action lawsuit said Friday.
Charles Warren, the county prison warden, abruptly resigned at midnight Sunday, a day before a federal court hearing in which a judge had threatened to levy fines for unsanitary conditions and non adherence to court-ordered COVID-19 protocols at the jail. The hearing, in which Pollock represents the prisoners, has been rescheduled.
The county approved Stanley Field on Tuesday as interim jail operations director. Field, a retired state police captain, was the county chief information security officer.
Please subscribe now and support the local journalism you rely on and trust.
Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com.
"close" - Google News
September 25, 2021 at 06:34AM
https://ift.tt/3AJMA1a
State high court decision allows N.J. county to close troubled jail - NJ.com
"close" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QTYm3D
https://ift.tt/3d2SYUY
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "State high court decision allows N.J. county to close troubled jail - NJ.com"
Post a Comment