COURT HOUSE – As an inmate passes days in a cell, Sheriff Gary Schaffer crossed off days since Feb. 25, 2014, when he unveiled architects’ drawings for a new correctional center, until freeholders awarded a contract to build one for $37.4 million April 12.
The new facility will house 320 inmates, compared with about 240 routinely housed in the 35-year-old facility built for 188. The center had a population of 235 Feb. 19, and in summer that population swells to over 300.
Bids for that initial proposal for a two-story facility came in at $44 million. Deemed too costly for the county, that plan was scrapped. Then, it was back to the drawing board for Facilities Director AnnMarie McMahon and her crew. They labored long and revised the plan in concert with the sheriff, warden and staff.
The result of that revised effort will be an 85,000-square-foot correctional center made up of modular cells that will house 320 inmates.
It will also include a separate juvenile housing unit as an alternate bid, said McMahon. That added $575,000 to the lump sum bid.
Incarceration is no laughing matter, neither was the design and bid process. McMahon offered to the board prior to its award “It’s called sweating bullets.”
Like awaiting the verdict of a jury in a murder case was the opening of five bids on the project that will replace the present correctional center on Crest Haven Road.
Bids ranged from the award winning $36,777,000 of Hall Construction Co, Inc. of Howell, which built Wildwoods Convention Center, to $40.67 million of L. Feriozzi Concrete Co.
Schaffer said the center’s features will include “a medical area that will be able to house inmates. That should cut down on medical expenses and trips to the hospital with inmates and officers. That should reduce costs.
“Also, the laundry facility is slightly larger that will enable the jail to do most of the laundry items for the (Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center) and the animal shelter, which will also reduce cost,” said Schaffer.
Another feature of the facility will be “direct supervision” as opposed to “linear supervision” in the present one. That said Schaffer “has been the current trend in correctional centers.”
Because of the pending change in the manner in which bail hearings are held, a court room, first planned for the center, was removed. However, said Schaffer, “There is a plan to adapt the multipurpose room for courtroom use if needed.”
McMahon said the use of modular units will help with quality control and the schedule to construct the facility.
“They are factory constructed and delivered to the site, so before we know it, there will be significant progress once we begin. The modular units get delivered with plumbing fixtures and interior fixtures already in place so it’s just a matter of stacking them and constructing around them.
“This significantly saves in on-site construction time. And since they are constructed at a factory, there is more quality control. The strength of the concrete is almost double the strength of masonry construction,” McMahon added.
“As far as the technology, the Inmate Visitation System will once again be utilized. This system eliminates the need to move inmates for visitation as everything is done electronically over a TV monitor.
“We are installing an extensive amount of security cameras throughout the facility and will be using a card access system for doors in the administrative portion of the facility.
“We are installing LED lighting which will keep maintenance and replacement costs to a minimum,” McMahon said.
Del Haven – To the Middle Twp. Police administrator who said he was on the outside looking in at the police dept.. You are correct. You have no idea what you are doing and how you make your officers feel. You…
