Plans are preliminary, but Mercer County is looking for alternatives to jailing inmates in Hopewell Township.
TRENTON -- Mercer County officials have been visiting county jails in Essex and Hudson counties recently in anticipation of possibly lodging inmates in other county facilities, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said Tuesday.
No plans are set, and Hughes declined to get into specifics, but he confirmed that his administration is seriously looking for alternatives to jailing people at the Mercer County Correction Center in Hopewell Township.
The Essex and Hudson facilities have vacancies, Hughes said.
Hughes said the Mercer jail is old, needs continuous maintenance, and the county would like to offer jail inmates better medical care, among other issues. The facility currently employs 233 corrections officers and 49 civilian staffers.
The county has studied the current Hopewell site, which Hughes says is not receptive to expanding anymore, and the choices come down to relocating inmates or building a new jail - which the county estimates at $400 to $500 million.
"Those figures are kind of daunting, when you think about it," Hughes said.
Looking for an alternative to the current county jail is not new.
Mercer County remains part of a study with Atlantic, Burlington, Camden and Cumberland counties that will examine the feasibility of a regional correctional facility.
The county agreed last June to pay up to $160,000 to be in the study, which was for one year and has a renewal option. Burlington County is acting as the lead in performing this study, Mercer officials said.
Hughes said any plans to move inmates to other counties would be presented to the Mercer County Board of Freeholders with a detailed plan. "And we're a ways off from that," he said.
Hughes said the jail is antiquated and can't take full advantage of camera-aided monitoring, so it requires additional manpower to staff it than more modern facilities.
A NJ Advance Media examination of overtime at county jails last year found Mercer County paid $40 million in overtime from 2010 to 2014, the highest tally in the state for those years.
Also, any plan to move prisoners would have other implications, Hughes acknowledged, from the current corrections officers and staff, to transporting inmates back and forth to a possibly northern county.
Hughes said any relocation of inmates would not eliminate the Mercer County corrections department, which would still maintain a Mercer presence to coordinate transportation to another facility and work with local police departments.
On Tuesday, the Mercer jail had 686 inmates, officials said.
A Mercer County location would also assist people in bailing out inmates locally, Hughes said.
One of the questions Hughes believes is most important in terms of looking at another county's jail facility is, "Do they have the services that I think it's important to have?"
Hughes said his feedback has been yes, and other counties do a better job at providing inmates medical services. Currently, two officers have to be assigned to prisoners needing outside medical care, Hughes said.
The county's goal, he said, is to provide for Mercer County inmates a more "therapeutic model" of treatment, including substance abuse treatment, coping skills, mental health treatment and education.
Also, Hughes said a consideration would also be in assisting current correction officers in finding reemployment is such a plan moves forward.
Hughes said the county also looked at Somerset County's jail, but found the jail is already full.
Last year, Somerset and Hunterdon counties struck a deal in which prisoners awaiting trial in Hunterdon County will now be housed at the Somerset County jail.
The Hunterdon County jail will not fully close under the outsourcing deal, but will only be used for new prisoner processing until transfer to the Somerset County jail about 15 miles away, officials said.
And in 2013 decision, Gloucester County closed its jail relocated prisoners to Burlington, Salem, Cumberland and Essex counties.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.