Cumberland County pursues regional jail; Camden County to house inmates temporarily

Cumberland County Commissioner Victoria Loads said the county is pursuing a regional jail model with neighboring counties and has arranged interim inmate housing with Camden County to reduce long transports and costs.

Loads, speaking in an on-air interview, said an earlier plan to build a new county jail — funded by county bonding dollars and originally proposed around 2019–2020 — was halted and that construction costs have risen since then. "In 2020, they pulled the plug on the project, and so we had the funding sitting there, the bonding funding that's just still sitting there," Loads said. She said the county reviewed options and concluded building a new, multi-county facility with partners would likely be the best long-term solution.

The change matters because many Cumberland inmates have been housed out of county, including in Hudson County, which Loads described as "somewhere very far away," adding that the transportation burden and costs are "way too expensive." Loads said the county is now negotiating with Camden County to provide nearer-term housing and that Camden has agreed to take Cumberland inmates while a regional plan is developed. "Camden County has agreed to house our inmates in the interim," she said.

Why it matters: keeping inmates closer to home can shorten officer transport time, lower costs and make it easier for family members and attorneys to visit detainees. Loads said the long-term plan under discussion would create a facility designed to "house everybody's needs" rather than adding on to a single neighboring county's jail. She said Salem County and Gloucester County have been part of prior conversations and that the model would likely require state regulatory review because it could set a new example for multi-county jail arrangements.

Background and next steps: Loads described the original site for the county jail as near the county library/prison center area before the 2020 pullback. She said the county is now in talks with Camden County and other partners to build an entirely new shared facility; she cautioned construction would take years and that the state is engaged in setting baseline standards for any new model. In the shorter term, she said, Camden County's interim housing agreement should reduce costs and transportation time compared with sending inmates to Hudson County.

Commissioner Loads framed the approach as a multi-step process: preserve and maintain the existing jail infrastructure in the short term, secure nearer-term housing via a partner county, and work toward a joint new facility that multiple counties would share and jointly manage. She emphasized the complexity and the need to "think outside of the box" because the multi-county model involves many stakeholders and state oversight.

Ending: Loads said county officials are continuing negotiations and reviewing regulatory and fiscal details; no construction timeline or formal interlocal agreement text was provided on-air. The county plans further outreach and planning before any final agreements or construction decisions are made.