Cumberland County Jail Makes The News Again; Now Dragging Gloucester County Into Their Mess

The Cumberland County Jail is in the news again this morning! The jail has made the news because William J. Hughes, who “was appointed special master to investigate and report to the court on a variety of virus-related issues,” said he doubts current leaders at the jail can make changes happen. From The Press of Atlantic City:

But in the same report, the attorney said he lacks faith in current leaders to make the changes happen.

"We question whether the critical paths outlined and recommendations made herein can be achieved or if they are beyond the capabilities of the current leadership," attorney William J. Hughes said in the report to Judge Noel L. Hillman.

We’ve covered the issues at the Cumberland County Jail here, here and here, but this time the folks in Cumberland have decided to drag Gloucester County into their mess. And, being a resident of Gloucester County, that caught my attention.

Apparently, the folks in Cumberland County, earlier this month, entered into a shared services agreement with Gloucester County to share Gloucester County’s warden. From this morning’s Press of Atlantic City:

Earlier this month, Commissioner Director Joseph Derella said in a news release the county has signed a shared services agreement to share Gloucester County Warden Eugene J. Caldwell II.

Needless to say I had to look into that a little further and again, thanks to the Press of Atlantic City, I learned it is true, Cumberland County is now using Gloucester County’s warden. From another Press of Atlantic City story earlier this month:

Derella described Caldwell as “uniquely qualified,” stating, “Warden Caldwell has decades of county corrections experience, but more importantly has been integral to Gloucester County’s successful transition from operating a jail to housing detainees in other facilities.”

Gloucester County closed its jail in 2013, the same year Caldwell was appointed warden there.

Gloucester County has a warden! News to me! We don’t even have a jail! Why have a warden? Why pay a guy almost $137,000 to be a warden for a jail the county doesn’t even have? And, for those who doubt the guy is paid almost $137,000, here it is from govsalaries.com:

According to Gloucester County’s website, “The primary purpose of the Corrections Division is to transport all lawfully detained inmates in an efficient, secure, and humane manner, and provide safety to the general public, staff members and inmates.” Here’s a screenshot:

I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it, the Corrections Division is part of the Sherrif’s Department which means the Sherrif’s Department transports “all lawfully detained inmates in an efficient, secure, and humane manner…” and therefore transport is the Sherrif’s responsibility.

As for providing “safety to the general public, staff members and inmates” I have to ask what inmates in Gloucester County? They don’t have a jail! Gloucester County has no inmates! It says so on Gloucester County’s website. Here’s a screenshot:

So, if no “Female Offenders,” no “Juvenile Offenders” and no “Male Offenders” are “housed in Gloucester County” why is Gloucester County paying a guy $136,677 a year to provide safety to inmates they don’t even house?

And, now Cumberland County is paying Gloucester County for Gloucester’s warden to perform the duties he is paid not to perform at the non-existent Gloucester County jail at the soon-to-close Cumberland County Jail that has already cost the taxpayers of Cumberland $65 million.

It seems to me the only beneficiary of this mess is now Gloucester County because Cumberland County is now paying Gloucester to use their warden.

But at least Gloucester’s warden now has to earn his pay.

Only in New Jersey! Yet folks wonder why Gloucester County is the 28th highest taxed county in the country and Cumberland County is the 84th highest taxed county in the country.

Election Day is November 2nd and you can vote early. If this kind of thing makes you angry get out there and vote.

The Cost Of Cumberland County’s $65 Million Floor Appears To Be Increasing

Last week we began hearing rumors that Cumberland County was about to get sued “for allegedly backing out of an agreement to build a facility to provide electricity and other utilities for a contemplated new county jail.”

I put it on the back burner because preparing for Thanksgiving and lots of turkey seemed more important. The rumors were confirmed when The Vineland Daily Journal ran with the story on Friday.

Now that I’ve come out of my food coma it’s time to complain about the fact Cumberland County has managed to get itself sued over the $65 million jail that will never be a jail.

The fact that Cumberland County had already borrowed (bonded) $65 million for a new jail, only to cancel the contract after breaking ground and building a floor, on dirt, no walls, no roof, nothing, just a floor did become an issue in the freeholder campaign.

The fact that Freeholder Director Joe Derella claimed cancelling the jail contract (and leasing jail space in other counties) would save money was also brought up during the campaign.

Apparently, voters did not care – they just went ahead and voted for the Democrats who control the freeholder board anyway.

Back when Derella was claiming the county would see savings this blog called him out and asked:

Savings? What savings? You borrowed $65 million. Someone has to pay that back with interest. That someone is the taxpayers of Cumberland County.

And now, here we are with another $6 million possibly being added to the cost of a jail that will never be built, but there is supposed to be a savings.

Even worse, the freeholder board knew this lawsuit was coming since at least September 22. From The Vineland Daily Journal:

The dispute also was not disclosed during the 2020 freeholder board campaign, though the lawsuit states a letter was sent on Sept. 22 to the county giving it 30 days to honor its agreement or face a lawsuit.

This means that if a letter was sent to the county on September 22 giving county government 30 days to make things right, the freeholders knew about this at the October Freeholder Board meeting and did not bother telling the public.

Even worse – and this is completely a guess on my part – no one bothered to share the letter with or tell the only Republican on the board about the lawsuit because knowing Freeholder Doug Albrecht the way I do I am fairly certain he would not have been happy to be told about this. He certainly would have made an issue of it.

To make matters even worse, the Freeholder Board, according to The Vineland Daily Journal, announced they were “re-evaluating its plans to build a new county correctional facility” on July 17 but it appears the Democrats may have decided to cancel the jail project as early as January. According to The Vineland Daily Journal article:

The lawsuit also discloses the first link between cancellation of the “Central Energy Center,” a decision apparently taken in January, and subsequent county decisions to cancel construction already started on a new, $65 million jail and to shrink its existing jail to function as a prisoner holding facility.

Obviously, if the Democrat freeholders were cancelling the project to provide energy to the new jail in January, they were also getting ready to cancel the jail. Why cancel only part of the project? An important part of the project!

I don’t want to call anyone a liar but someone has been doing their best to hide the truth from the taxpayers of Cumberland County.

Back in August when I blogged about the jail I wrote, “There’s going to be more to come on this story. Stay tuned!”

So far it appears the truth has been hidden from the taxpayers and from the only Republican on the Freeholder Board. Definitely, stay tuned, because it’s starting to look like there is going to be a lot more to this story.

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?