New Jersey Department of Corrections

Monmouth County, NJ: (Jul-26-07) Monmouth County has been embroiled in a legal battle with the State Department of Corrections for over 19 years. The suit claimed that the state owed the county money for nearly two decades of underpayment for housing state inmates at the county jail. In the 1990s, many county jails in New Jersey were housing more state inmates and for longer periods of time as the state Department of Corrections grappled with overcrowding and transportation problems. Most of the backlog was between the time an inmate was sentenced to a state prison and the time a bed became available. Counties complained their in mate housing costs were increasing and that the state refused to recognize those rising expenses.

In 1998, following the lead of Morris and Middlesex counties, Monmouth sued the state for reimbursement of those costs. The state initially paid Monmouth $340,000, but county officials, insisting they were owed more, continued with the litigation. In a settlement reached, the state Department of Corrections has agreed to reimburse Monmouth County more than $5 million to settle the long winded suit. Laura Kirkpatrick, a spokeswoman for the county, said the new contract, which extends to 2010, calls for the previous daily rate of $65 per state inmate to increase to $71.50. [STAR LEDGER: INMATE HOUSING]

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Published on Jul-28-07