The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Now they fear they're about to be dumped on again.

Some politicians say the state is plotting to ship more than 350 hard-core sex offenders to Cumberland County, adding to what is already New Jersey's densest population of prisoners. Beyond that, Gov. Corzine says he wants to shut Camden's Riverfront State Prison, which would mean its 1,100 inmates have to go somewhere else.

"This is where the state is pushing their trash," griped Cosmo Terrigno, who runs the Centerton Inn and the Coach Room restaurant in Bridgeton. "We don't want them. We have enough problems in our county now, with the influx of immigrants and the rising crime. We're going to fight this as hard as we can."

There was a time, back in the 1960s and 1970s when the first two state prisons were built in the area, when most of Cumberland County's 146,000 residents were happy for the jobs and other economic benefits of a prison industry, said Cumberland County Freeholder Director Doug Rainear.

"That's when it was in dire straits economically," Rainear said. "But we've turned the corner. Now we're one of the fastest-growing counties in New Jersey. We're not looking to become Devil's Island here."

He added: "Our county will not be the dumping ground for sexual predators or additional prisoners."

The three state prisons in the county already house more than 7,700 inmates. A federal prison holds 520 more.

U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, a Republican whose district includes the county, said a facility for sex offenders would chill fledgling economic development.

"When you want to attract businesses, families and tourists, what message are you sending if you're saying this is the state's dumping zone for sex offenders?" he asked.

Cumberland County, which anchors New Jersey's southern border between the Delaware Bay and Cape May County, is a heart-shaped oasis of orchards, farms and salt marshes. It's dotted with quaint towns - many with homes dating from the 1600s - and former glass-blowing centers that made use of the silica-rich sand.

The county has a long history of resisting distant tyrants. In 1774, Greenwich, a small settlement on the Cohansey Creek near the Delaware Bay, hosted a tea party similar to Boston's, in which protestors looted a storeroom of taxed tea and torched it in the town square.

George Hayman, the state corrections commissioner, said Cumberland's concern is premature. He said he hasn't decided where to house the sex offenders, who are being crowded out of other facilities.

Few buy that story.

State Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney said the state is targeting South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton - the county seat - as the new home for 358 of the state's most dangerous sex offenders.

"My understanding is that it's all but a done deal," said Sweeney, a Democrat who represents Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem Counties.

His comments, which he first made in April, set off a storm of outrage. Protesters rallied across the street from the 3,330-inmate, medium-security South Woods State Prison, which Sweeney said could eventually double its size.

Local newspapers angrily editorialized against the sex offenders. The county freeholders passed a resolution opposing moving any sex criminals to the county.

The state continues trying to temper the rage.

Deirdre Fedkenheuer, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said that at least three sites are under consideration for the sex offenders
- Newark in Essex County, Woodbridge in Middlesex County, and South Woods.

"The commissioner has also said we are looking at prisons in the central part of the state," Fedkenheuer said. "It's not a done deal by any means."

Most sex offenders now serve their criminal sentences at Woodbridge, in the state's Avenel Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center.

New Jersey is squeezed for sex-offender prison space because state law permits some to be held longer than their prison sentences. The state is among 19 U.S. states that permit some offenders to be civilly committed.

The secure facility for sex offenders held under civil commitment in Kearny, Hudson County, is full, Fedkenheuer said. Another in Woodbridge is near capacity, she said.

As more sex offenders are held past the end of their criminal sentences, even more prison space will be needed.

"I think the state is preparing for it," Sweeney said. "We know it's coming."

Once they're civilly committed, few are released. In 1998, the Legislature allowed sex offenders to be involuntarily committed to a state psychiatric facility. The Kearny facility was created in 1999. The state promised Hudson County it would build a new state facility in two years, said Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, a Democrat from Jersey City. But plans to build a 300-bed sex offender facility in Cumberland County at Bayside State Prison collapsed after local protests.

Bridgeton Mayor Jim Begley, who has met with the state corrections commissioner, said he doesn't believe Cumberland County will get stuck with more sex offenders.

"[The commissioner] told us he could throw them down there tomorrow, and we couldn't do anything about it," Begley said. "But he said he wouldn't do that. For starters, there's not enough social services down here to support that population. They need a lot of mental health support."

Sweeney, for one, is unconvinced that the state won't try to use Bridgeton as its dumping ground.

"I got some information from inside the department," Sweeney said. "It's the most logical site. And I'll only be satisfied if the commissioner ends the drama and says, 'Bridgeton's out.' "
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20070608_S__Jersey_wary_of_prison_mo
ve.html