County joins study on five-county jail
BRIDGETON – South Jersey could one day be home to a regional jail facility serving the needs of five nearby counties.
The Cumberland County Board of Chosen Freeholders voted Tuesday night to make the county the fifth to enter into an $800,000 shared-services study that will ultimately determine whether there is enough interest in a possible regional jail facility.
The planned study, to be conducted over 8-12 months by a Trenton consulting firm, will assess the needs and feasibility of five counties — Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and now Cumberland. The intent is to determine whether a regional jail should be built and which county should host it.
“This project is pretty much unprecedented,” Cumberland County Deputy Administrator Kim Wood said. “It’s pretty impressive. It’s a really big deal.”
All five counties have officially signed off on the shared services agreement as of Tuesday night, according to freeholder director Joseph Derella, and Burlington County will take the lead by invoicing each county to pay for the study.
Salem and Cape May counties opted not to take part in the study, county officials said.
“We recognize that not all counties have the desire and/or ability to continue to host correctional facilities in their communities,” Derella said. “We also recognize that there are others who have the ability to host these kinds of facilities and can do it well. We look forward to this study providing us with answers about who can do what best and how we can all benefit from some type of regional concept.”
No date has been given for the start of the evaluation, but Derella said the board expects it to happen within the next few weeks.
Trenton consulting company Vaughn Collaborative has already been hired by Burlington County officials, Derella said, and each of the five counties will be asked to contribute $160,000 toward the study.
In addition to evaluating the needs of each five counties, the company will study the potential staffing size and estimated building cost of a possible regional jail facility.
“This regional concept is a true testament of how shared services can be a positive resource when governments can cross county lines and work together for a common goal,” he said. “Cumberland County is very pleased to be a part of this initiative and looks forward to working with all of our county partners.”
The board voted 4-1 at its Tuesday night meeting to enter into the agreement, with Freeholder James Sauro the lone dissenting vote. Freeholders Carol Musso and Doug Long were not present at the meeting.
Freeholder Tom Sheppard voiced his approval shortly before casting his vote.
“I think all the counties can benefit from this,” he said. “It’s too bad Salem didn’t get involved to help spread the cost a little further. These don’t come cheap.”
Saying he hoped to see the prospect of a shared facility become reality, Sheppard said, “Hopefully after this study we actually do it. We can save a lot of money by doing this.”
Derella agreed.
“We have an outdated facility, lot of overtime issues cause we have such an antiquated building,” Derella said when asked what Cumberland’s needs are. “That’s the biggest one.”
Freeholder and public safety alternate liaison Carol Musso earlier in the day sought to assure labor groups that their interests will be taken seriously in the study.
“It is important to note that we have met with our labor groups to share the concept of the regional jail study, and we will continue to include them in future discussions as we make our way through the process,” Musso said.
For county government and jail officials, shared service agreements are nothing new.
In 2013, the county entered into an agreement with Gloucester County that saw the closure of that county’s jail and the transfer of its inmates to Cumberland County Jail.
As part of the deal, a minimum of 100 Gloucester County inmates are transferred to the underutilized Bridgetonfacility at a daily rate of $83 per person.
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