Plan to close Riverfront State Prison causes a stir

SOME NEW JERSEY men have been enjoying stellar views of the Philadelphia skyline for the last 24 years, while living free of charge on a waterfront parcel that one elected official has called "the most valuable piece of property in the Delaware Valley."

All they had to do was get convicted of a crime and be sentenced to Riverfront State Prison in North Camden, a medium-security facility on the Delaware River in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge.

But now, according to a group of New Jersey law-enforcement unions, the state is preparing to close Riverfront, the second-newest of its 14 prisons, by June 30.

The unions are distributing a flier depicting murderers, rapists and gang members from Riverfront breaking into homes and harming children after the prison closes.

Elected officials and community organizations in Camden support closing the prison, claiming that the 16.7 acres it occupies are key to revitalizing a neighborhood they feel the facility has demoralized by its mere presence.

"Number one, it never should have been there," said Judge Theodore Z. Davis, Camden's chief operating officer. "For someone to think to put a prison on that property is simply idiotic. It's a stigma for all of the residents that we are dirt. Camden takes everyone else's human waste, their trash, and their prisoners."

During a meeting with the state Department of Corrections (DOC)on Nov. 25, law-enforcement-union officials say, they learned a number of troubling things that have led them to believe that the state's concern is not for public safety so much as it is capitalizing on waterfront property.

Union officials say they were told that more people were being diverted from state prison by special courts and new parole programs, and that more prisoners were being released into halfway houses and residential treatment facilities.

That has led to more empty beds in state prisons, with plans to reduce Riverfront's population by 50 prisoners a week until June 30, union officials claim. One corrections officer said the prison no longer accepts new inmates.

Responding to an inquiry from the Daily News, the New Jersey DOC said in a statement yesterday that closing the prison was being "contemplated" but added that the 798-inmate population "is of such a size that cost savings and efficiencies are achieved by relocation of prisoners."

The Camden County Jail just a few blocks away has 1,650 inmates, 113 of whom are state prisoners, a county spokesman said.

The DOC said that although New Jersey's inmate population has decreased, the state has not relaxed parole laws, is not building more halfway houses, and would keep inmates in the appropriate level of custody if the prison closed.

When asked by the Daily News if the June 30 deadline for closing the prison was accurate, the DOC said that "the answer to that question has not been determined."

Union officials claim that the DOC is being force-fed the Riverfront closure by the state and that none of the elected state officials they contacted after the Nov. 25 meeting had gotten back to them.

That silence prompted the flier, which warns that "crime is about to go up in your neighborhood" and depicts men storming out of a prison, fists raised, with labels including "murderer," "rapist" and "thief" on their shirts.

Camden officials called the flier misleading, but Jim Messier, president of the New Jersey Law Enforcement Supervisors Association, disagreed.

"It's not misleading at all," Messier said. "They are closing a jail and releasing inmates to halfway houses."

Gregory Kelley, president of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 105, said state officials are disrespecting Riverfront employees by not having an open dialogue.

"We can't sit by idly," said Kelley, who represents more than 300 officers at the prison.

The flier also shows photos and contact information for 12 state senators and Assembly members from Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties. "Call your Politicians!!!" it implores.

Only three of the 12 elected officials on the flier could be reached for comment. Their spokesman, Robbie Kenney of Burlington County, said his office did not know enough about the matter to respond.

Camden County Freeholder Jeffrey Nash was not among the faces on the flier, but called the tactic a "public outrage." "It's a medium-security prison, built against the wishes of the people, on the most valuable piece of property in the Delaware Valley," Nash said.

Nash said Gov. Jon Corzine supports the prison-closing. A spokesman for Corzine did not immediately return a phone call from the Daily News seeking comment.

The $31 million prison was protested by community activists when it was built in 1985, but the state was offering the cash-strapped city $3 million and the promise of new jobs in exchange for the prison.

"It's been detrimental to the people's psyche ever since," said Betsy Clifford, executive director of Camden Lutheran Housing, a nonprofit agency that creates affordable housing in North Camden.

Over the last two decades, as the prices of waterfront properties have skyrocketed and as Camden has added an aquarium, a major-concert venue, a minor-league baseball stadium and the Battleship New Jersey to its waterfront, the city found that it had a jackpot trapped beneath a prison.

Kelley thinks that demolishing a prison that is relatively new and in good condition is baffling, considering that many New Jersey prisons have been in poor shape since the early 20th century.

According to the DOC, Riverfront would be the first adult prison closed by the state. It has no immediate plans to build another.

Kelly Mercado, a Camden resident and corrections officer at Riverfront for the last decade, said the prison and its corrections officers act as a deterrent to crime in a violent city.

"Public safety is the main issue," she said. "I think they'll pay dearly for it."

But Camden Councilman Angel Fuentes, who represents North Camden, said he would rejoice when bulldozers pull up to the prison and residents will have a view of Philadelphia unmarred by razor wire and watchtowers.

That view might be temporary, once a developer snatches it up.

"We need ratables so bad in the city, but this [prison-closing] is good for the region, too," he said. "I wouldn't hesitate to reach out to [Donald] Trump to build in the city."