By Jane M. Von Bergen
The Philadelphia Inquirer
NEWARK, NJ — Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Bookbinder cleared the way Monday for the Gloucester County jail to be closed and its inmates to be housed as far away as Newark, N.J.
The Burlington County judge turned aside a plea from New Jersey’s public defenders to temporarily halt the jail’s closure.
Jail officials plan to start transferring inmates Monday. The jail generally houses 200 to 270 inmates, with the majority awaiting trial or pretrial hearings.
The public defenders filed suit May 9 to stop the closure, arguing that they would not be able to effectively represent their clients if the inmates were not housed near the courthouse in Woodbury.
“We’re not [just] talking about someone with a law degree that’s breathing,” argued the defenders’ lawyer, Justin T. Loughry, a former public defender and now a partner in Loughry & Lindsay in Camden. “We’re talking about the effective assistance of counsel” guaranteed by the Constitution, he said.
The judge ruled that the public defenders did not prove that they would “suffer immediate and irreparable harm” if he did not halt the closure. He also turned aside a request from Gloucester County to have the case dismissed, writing that facts remained in dispute.
“There has been no actual harm,” William Tambussi told the judge, arguing on behalf of the county. Tambussi, a partner at Brown & Connery in Westmont, said the defenders’ argument that their clients would be hurt was conjecture.
The suit names the freeholders as defendants, along with the four counties that would receive the inmates - Cumberland, Salem, Burlington, and Essex.
The judge’s decision means Gloucester can begin to shut down the jail unless Loughry and the defenders persuade an appeals court to grant a stay. As of Monday afternoon, Loughry and the defenders had not decided whether to appeal.
If “things don’t work out on Monday, you’re back here on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Bookbinder told Loughry.
Things working out hinge on the transportation plan that the county promised to have in place. The county said it would guarantee to transport inmates to Woodbury for conversations with their lawyers.
In court, Loughry said the county’s promise of a transportation plan shows that it understands the importance of communication between clients and their lawyers.
“It sounds like you are criticizing the defendants for solving the problem,” the judge said.
The plan is long on promises and short on details on how at least 100 inmate trips a week would be accomplished, Loughry said.
“You don’t have any information that it’s not going to work,” Bookbinder responded.
Tambussi said at least 53 of the jail’s 100 correctional officers would be retained to handle transportation.
The effectiveness of the transportation system is one of the “disputed material facts” that remain to be resolved in court, Bookbinder wrote in his opinion.
Loughry also said the inmates’ inability to have convenient visits from friends, family, and supporters affected their ability to put on an effective defense.
And, he said, the freeholders do not have the authority to close the jail, since, by New Jersey law, running the jail is the responsibility of the either the sheriff or the freeholders. While they can delegate their authority to another entity, the “direct services” contract they passed in April is not the proper vehicle, he said.
“We can’t ignore the financial issues,” Tambussi argued.
Budgets are tight, he told the judge, which means the freeholders have to balance the needs of services to everyone in the county with the “convenience of the public defenders to get where they need to get” to represent their clients.
The freeholders say operating the jail costs $28 million annually, about 13 percent of the county budget. The county has said that closing the jail will save $2 million for the remainder of the year, $7 million in 2014, $8 million in 2015, and $10 million for each year thereafter.
Tambussi pointed out that the county has proven its ability to handle transporting inmates.
In 2009 and 2010, the county sent its juvenile and female inmates to Camden, Salem, and Cumberland Counties, and those agreements have each saved $1.8 million annually.
Bookbinder is presiding over the public defenders’ case because he had been handling a suit filed by the jail’s correctional officers opposing the closure. The officers voted last week to drop that suit in return for early-retirement incentive packages for senior officers.
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