Private firm moves to build and run Camden jail

[The Watchmen]

By Matthew Spolar and James Osborne
The Philadelphia Inquirer

A New Jersey company, watching closely as officials consider closing the Camden County jail and privatizing corrections services, has filed an application to build a facility in central Camden.
County spokeswoman Joyce Gabriel said she was aware Education & Health Centers of America Inc. had moved on the site, but added that officials had not made a decision on privatization.

The company filed an application in June with the Camden Department of Development and Planning for a 143,000-square-foot "treatment and correctional facility" at 2630 Mount Ephraim Ave.

In March, it took out options to buy two adjacent properties at that location, according to city records.

The company often options properties ahead of decisions by local authorities so it can act quickly if officials choose to privatize, said Bill Palatucci, spokesman for Community Education Centers Inc., which operates Education & Health Centers facilities.

"This is done in anticipation of what the county may ask for," he said.

Community Education Centers runs the Delaware County prison in Thornton as well as a number of correctional facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas.

Gabriel said that if officials decide to privatize, "there are several companies that we would want to talk to. But this is just one option among many. That [application] has nothing to do with us."

But many observers wonder if decisions have been made.

Esther Gross, the leader of Morgan Village Circle Community Development Corp., a civic group that works to bring business into the Morgan Village neighborhood, which abuts the site, has been following Education & Health Centers' move on the property since the summer.

The county "might be saying they haven't made a decision, but it's clear this company feels they're going to get the contract," Gross said.

Community Education Centers was one of four companies cited in a report by consulting firm Pulitzer/Bogard & Associates as qualified to run Camden County's jail should officials decide to privatize. The report, released by the county two weeks ago, recommended the construction of a privately run, 2,400-bed jail to replace the county jail on Federal Street, which opened in 1987.

The downtown jail's average daily population was 1,653 inmates in October, well in excess of the 1,083 inmates it is certified to hold.

"Should they decide to close the current downtown facility and move it to a different site, this site would accommodate a building sufficient to the county's current needs and more," Palatucci said of the Mount Ephraim Avenue land.

Camden County Administrator Ross Angilella said in a recent interview that the jail was the county's "number-one fiscal issue," putting its annual cost at $55.2 million, up 35 percent from 2004.

But the prospect of privatization has raised opposition from a number of sides.

The corrections officers' union, which says it will face substantial cuts in pay and benefits if a private company takes over, is planning to seek an injunction against the county if it moves ahead with privatization.

And in Morgan Village, residents fear for their personal safety as well as the impact on local businesses, Gross said.

"We don't see where this benefits anyone. Once we become known as 'the jail part of town,' no real business will want to come here," she said. "We don't want to leave, and we don't want to become prisoners in our own homes."

Palatucci said the site is attractive to the company because it is a large tract of land in a commercial area. The fact that it is next to a state parole office could allow some "synergies" to take place between the two facilities, he said.

Palatucci said the company is "very encouraged by the actions the county has been taking over the last year."

"We've asked them what's coming next, and they've said, 'Stay tuned,' " he said.

The zoning permit application filed by Education & Health Centers in June was denied by Planning Director Edward Williams in a letter dated Sept. 29, on the ground that the commercially zoned properties were not authorized for a jail. Education & Health Centers has until early December to appeal the decision to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, a fairly routine step.

One of the properties at 2630 Mount Ephraim is owned by Arthur Cecero Sr., 78, who said he has run a small produce market at the site for about 50 years. He optioned his land to Education & Health Centers and signed their zoning application, which states the buildings there would be demolished to make way for the correctional facility.

"I've got a good business there," he said. "It's going to take a little something for me to sell it."