Freeholders Plan For New $3.7 Million Walkway To Link Ocean County Jail and Courthouse

Moving inmates from the Ocean County Jail to the Ocean County Courthouse will be a lot more secure in the near future, according to a report on app.com.

Ocean County plans to spend at least $3.7 million to build the new walkway. Construction is expected to start in the coming weeks.

The walkway will use an existing underground tunnel underneath the Justice Complex. That will enable county law enforcement officers to transfer inmates securely between the two buildings, County administrator Carl W. Block.

Right now, officers have to move inmates through an employee parking lot set aside for senior county officials or on a public sidewalk, Block said.

"It will provide the missing link, if you will," Block said. "To take a prisoner in a secure environment all the way from the jail through, up and over into the criminal courts at 100 (Hooper Avenue). With that, however, construction will be in between those buildings, and affect — we have a small parking lot in the back of the old courthouse — so it looks like there may be some relocation of parking for those who park back there; possibly all of them and possibly for as long as a year."

Block said the work is being done along with other Justice Complex renovations.

But none of it is part of a proposed $40 million project of the entire county government complex. The proposal is stalled since the five-member freeholder board are divided over spending that much money at this time.

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