Second phase of jail expansion to receive OK

The Ocean County Board of Freeholders has introduced an ordinance appropriating $5 million to continue the preliminary work to expand the Ocean County jail on Hooper Avenue in Toms River. A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for Feb. 21.

"We are currently in the design phase of the project," said Freeholder Director John P. Kelly, who serves as director of law and public safety. "These preliminary steps for this project are extensive and include everything we need to do prior to actual construction of the project, including obtaining permits, completing the design and a host of other actions."

The expansion and renovation plans for the jail calls for 157,000 square feet of additions and alterations at the Ocean County Justice Complex on Hooper Avenue, Toms River.

"This expansion has been discussed and studied for more than two years," Kelly said. "It's really a matter of maintaining public safety that we are undertaking this project."

The proposed expansion would include the construction of new space at the rear of the Justice Complex and a two-story addition on the south side of the existing building. The Ocean County jail currently is on the fourth and fifth floors of the Justice Complex.

According to a needs assessment completed in 2005, since 1985 when the Board of Freeholders opened the jail atop the Ocean County Justice Complex, the county's population has increased by almost 200,000 people. Since that time period, new mandatory sentencing laws have gone into effect resulting in longer jail terms, and municipalities have employed more police officers resulting in an increase in patrols and arrests.

The combination of increasing admissions at the Ocean County jail and increased average length of stay has created a higher average daily population at the jail, according to the study done by Carter Goble Associates. The current average population at the facility routinely exceeds more than 500 inmates, while the jail was built to hold 280.

Under the current proposal, the county plans to add space for an additional 400 beds, which would increase the jail capacity to 680 beds.

"An expansion of the facility is needed to meet the current and future needs of the Ocean County jail population," Kelly said. "Because of the growing numbers we cannot separate inmates, which creates security and safety problems in particular for our corrections officers. The expansion will address all those concerns and will result in a safer facility for our officers and the public at large."

The expansion is designed to meet the needs of the county's inmate housing requirements until 2025 and all inmate areas would continue to be within a maximum-security perimeter.

Kelly noted that the estimated construction cost of the jail expansion proposal is $49 million.

With the alterations, support functions that already exist, including intake areas, laundry facilities and the medical unit, will be improved.

"This is not a routine construction project," Kelly said. "Constructing a facility for the incarceration of inmates is much different than building an office building. We have to meet very specific security criteria, and it can be costly."

The county last year awarded a contract to Fletcher Thompson Architecture Engineering of East Brunswick to proceed with the design and permit approval phase of the project.

The design and permit approval phase is expected to take about 12 months to complete while the actual construction will take about 30 months. The entire project including the bidding and award of the work is expected to take about 45 months to complete.