Cumberland Dems Defend Flushing Away $65 Million

Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joe Derella

When I first blogged about Cumberland County’s $65 million jail that will never be, I thought the Democrat-controlled Cumberland County Freeholder Board was trying to be as bad as Camden County’s all Democrat Freeholder Board. Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joe Derella has upped the ante!

The countywide races in Cumberland County have heated up with a rambling post on the Cumberland County Democrats Facebook page.

The post was authored by Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joe Derella. Derella uses the post to defend the decision of the Democrat-controlled Freeholder Board to stop construction of the new county jail. And, of course, Derella used the opportunity to take shots at Republican Sheriff candidate Mike Donato and Freeholder candidates Victoria Lods, Darwin Cooper and Tony Romero.

Never mind the smack Derella talked about the Cumberland GOP candidates in his screed, I’ll let the candidates handle that. I could not help noticing that not one time did Derella mention the county already floated a $65 million bond for this new jail that suddenly is not being built.

I’m not buying “the County will be constructing a holding facility and additional court related facilities and is looking at options to repurpose the new jail site” as a way to beneficially spend the $65 million already borrowed for the new jail. In fact, I don’t believe they will spend $65 million even if they do build additional court related facilities.

I’m not buying it because it appears to me a holding facility and additional court related facilities are ideas that Derella suddenly came up with when writing his screed. He obviously didn’t have those ideas a month ago when he told The Press of Atlantic City:

Officials are considering what to use the new space for, with Derella saying it’s “an opportunity to shift our focus toward community development, including the expansion of educational, recreational and cultural opportunities.”

“We envision this site being used for a community center promoting the freedom to learn, play and enrich our community,” Derella said. “If the events of the last few months have taught us anything, it has taught us that we must invest in our people, particularly our young people, to ensure that we have a just and fair society that incarcerates as few people as possible.”

They envision the site being used for a community center. Great idea! Put a community center next to a state prison. The inmates will love looking out their cell windows at the moms dropping their kids off. Brilliant! Kudos to Freeholder Director Derella.

Not once did Derella use the words “holding facility and additional court related facilities,” when being quoted by The Press of Atlantic City.

Why not? I suspect because he just made them up as he was writing his post for his party to put on Facebook.

Derella’s idea to turn the site of the new jail into a community center is stupid. I’m not the only one who thinks so, Jack Surrency, a Democrat, told The Press of Atlantic City:

“We have an obsolete jail that needs a solution; we have one under construction,” Surrency said. “We also have a lack of recreation in the county; we need a separate solution that focuses more on funding programs and less on bricks and mortar. I’ve spent the last three years saying this very same thing.”

He noted there would be significant transportation challenges for youth to get to the proposed facility, arguing public transportation is a significant issue in the county.

“You don’t inspire young people by locating a community center right next to a state prison,” Surrency said.

Surrency is right! Cumberland County does have a lack of recreation. It is still the only county in the state without a county park system despite the fact that in “2011 the county adopted the Open Space & Recreation Master Plan.” The plan was adopted after the county paid $80,000 to a Pennsylvania company to “conduct an Open Space Planning Process and preparing an Open Space and Recreation Master Plan for the Cumberland County Department of Planning and Development.”

Derella’s line, “The decision to defer the construction of a new jail in favor of housing detainees in other counties was made based on the fact that COVID-19 dramatically accelerated bi-partisan bail and sentencing reform initiatives resulting in far fewer people being detained in our County jail,” is garbage.

Does Derella not realize that New Jersey’s Bail Reform took effect on January 1, 2017? Jail populations were already going down when the decision to build the new jail was made. For him to argue that COVID-19 is the reason the jail has fewer inmates is ridiculous.

Given the fact that according to his bio, Derella is serving in his “fourth consecutive year as Freeholder Director” he was the director when the Freeholder Board decided to build the new jail. A decision that was made after Bail Reform took place.

Perhaps the reason Derella went off attacking Republicans in a screed posted to Facebook is he’s trying to hide from the fact that pushing to borrow $65 million for a jail that might not be needed was his stupid idea in the first place.

Stupid idea aside I still have the same question I had last week. What savings? I do not understand where there are any savings when the taxpayers, whether any buildings are built or not, are on the hook for the $65 million bond.

That’s the $65 million question. If the taxpayers have to pay back the money you borrowed to build a jail you decided to stop building where are the savings Mr. Derella?