The Atlantic County Justice Facility is on its last legs.
Issues with heating, locks, plumbing and daily problems are beyond rehabilitation.
What happens next is the question the county Criminal Justice Advisory Board brought to a group of stakeholders as the county decides whether to join a regionalized jail built at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow Township or find a way to build a new county jail on its own.
BreakingAC was permitted to attend the closed meeting held at the Atlantic County Criminal Courthouse last week.
A decision needs to be made said retired Judge Mark Sandson, who chairs the advisory board.
"We have an A or B choice," he told the group. "There is no C that I'm aware of."
The Southern New Jersey Rehabilitation and Reentry Center would be the largest shared services project in the state's history if the county agrees to join Camden and Cumberland counties.
"This building has hit its mark," Warden Mike Kelly said of the current jail, where continuous maintenance cannot keep up with the issues.
Then there is the continuous overtime corrections officers are forced to work as the jail struggles to fill positions.
There are about 34 positions open, Kelly said, which equates to about 100 or more in other jails.
"They just want to go home at the end of their shift," the warden said.
Many who have the option of Family and Medical Leave Act time have taken it to avoid the relentless hours, Kelly said.
That means even more overtime for those without FMLA.
The answer, Camden County leaders insist, lies with the regionalized jail they say would be a state-of-the-art facility focusing on issues like mental health and programs to help reduce recidivism.
Camden County Administrator Ross Angilella said their current jail has some of the same issues as Atlantic County, including about 100 openings.
He and Deputy Administrator Holly Cass have brought the regionalized plan to several counties in search of a third to join.
The state is onboard, already awarding about $50 million in grants toward the project, "and I expect to get more," Angilella said.
Operating costs are estimated to be about $345 each day per inmate, with an annual operating cost of $238 million.
The full price of building the regionalized jail has been estimated at more than $1 billion split between the three counties.
A new Atlantic County jail could cost about $400 million to $500 million, according to an estimate given at the meeting, although it does not seem to have been studied.
Some are not convinced, questioning the true cost and the nearly 30 miles inmates would be from the Criminal Courthouse in Mays Landing.
Retired Superior Court Judge Albert Garofolo estimated it would take two buses a day to transport inmates from Winslow Township to the courthouse and back.
That is without the additional issues of weather and inmates that may need to stay around to fill out paperwork for instances like plea agreements and sentencings.
"It will be a logistical nightmare," Garofolo said. "I think it's untenable, frankly."
He also questioned attorneys making the trek to the new site.
Cass noted that there has been a move toward virtual meetings for many attorneys.
First Assistant Deputy Public Defender Alex Settle said his office prefers seeing inmates in person.
"We can walk to see our clients now," he said.
Amanda Leese, of Volunteers of America, said she has been in contact with the Camden group, and sees a lot of positive in the plan.
"The transportation, I think, will be worked out," she said.
There also were mentions of "satellite" locations that would remain in each county.
But full details still are being worked out as the regionalized jail leaders want the proposed three counties to have an equal say in the plans.
Angilella led a presentation before the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners last month, with an introduction by County Executive Dennis Levinson, who is pushing for the move.
Levinson was not at the private meeting held last week.
Atlantic County Commissioner Jim Bertino did attend.
His Fifth Ward covers the western part of the county including Hammonton.
While the regionalized jail would technically be in Camden County, it's basically in Hammonton's backyard, he noted.
That raises safety concerns for those living there.
Angilella said where the psychiatric hospital now stands would be safer with the new plan, putting at least a 100 law enforcement officers around the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Bertino said he has his own opinions about the plan, but that the other commissioners reach have their own.
Regardless of the ultimate choice, he said, the decision needs to be made within six months.
Atlantic County Public Safety Director Mike Fedorko warned that if the regionalized plan is getting millions from the state, the county is unlikely to get any financial help if it decides to try to build its own jail.
The meeting also gave insight into the changing jail population in a post-bail reform world.
The majority of inmates used to be those serving lower-level cases.
That is no longer true, the warden said.
There were 6,300 inmates who went through the Atlantic County Justice Facility last year, he said. Only about 12 to 15 percent were serving sentences.
The majority are there for less than a week, Kelly said. Some even just a day.
They often are coming in with bodies broken by drugs, but no time to get them any real help.
Under bail reform, those who are arrested on warrants are brought to the jail and processed. They then are supposed to have their first appearance within 24 to 48 hours.
That is when they either are released, or learn that they will have a detention hearing.
Those who have hearings then either are ordered detained or are released with conditions.
Inmates who are held still have a constant question mark over them as they do not know the outcome of their cases.
Some seemed surprised by Kelly's insights.
But the one question not asked was why this has not been a point of discussion in the nearly nine years since bail reform was passed.
Meanwhile, a decision now must be made.
The meeting ended with the group agreeing to more discussions and to plan a tour of the current jail.
