Neighbors demand action on jailbreak

‘What’s really important is removing these prisoners from our community.’

By: John Tredrea
   HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — Hopewell Township, home of the county Correction Center on Route 29 near Lambertville, wants Mercer County to remove all maximum-security prisoners from the facility.
   Hopewell’s Township Committee unanimously asked the county to do just that at its Sept. 6 meeting. A similar township request was made several years ago.
   As Mayor Marylou Ferrara put it, the committee is "renewing the call" on removing maximum-security prisoners in the wake of the escape of two-time convicted murderer Terence Monroe Brewer from the Correction Center on Aug. 30.
   Wayne Peterson lives on the portion of Woodens Lane located in West Amwell. "There are children in my neighborhood who sleep at night with a pen knife or baseball bat" as a result of the Correction Center’s housing maximum-security prisoners, he told the committee. "I’ve never owned a gun or felt the need to own one, but now I’m considering getting one. I agree that the emergency procedures are important and need to be reviewed, but what’s really important is removing these prisoners from our community."
   "I want to see big high walls and razor wire, not chain link fence" on a facility that houses maximum-security inmates, said township resident Wayne Hansen of Pleasant Valley Road, who noted he lives closer to the Correction Center than any township resident except one.
   The committee agreed to circulate a petition seeking removal of the maximum-security prisoners from the Correction Center. Copies are available for signing at the Hopewell Township Branch, Mercer Library, and at the front desk at the municipal building.
   "He escaped quite easily," Deputy Mayor Jon Edwards said of Mr. Brewer. "It is likely there was a diversion of some kind in the yard" of the Correction Center. Noting that Mr. Brewer was gone about 13 hours before the center realized it, Mr. Edward’s said, "I renew our call for a complete and comprehensive review of security procedures" at the Correction Center.
   Mayor Ferrara said calling the Correction Center by that name is a misnomer. "It’s really a workhouse. That’s what it was designed to be," she said, noting that an engraved stone sign on the front of the center says "Workhouse." The facility is more than 100 years old and has housed maximum-security inmates since the county’s decision, made three years ago, to send those inmates to the Correction Center (or workhouse) instead of spending $7 million in repairs needed to keep the county Detention Center in Trenton fully operational.
   Of the Detention Center, located next to the county courthouse in Trenton, Mayor Ferrara said, "It’s a big concrete building with tiny windows. You can’t imagine someone jumping off the roof and escaping," as Mr. Brewer did from the Correction Center. The mayor said taking the Detention Center, which is less than 30 years old, out of service is a "shocking example of fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement. We need to address the long-term maintenance needs of Mercer County."
   She added that the township needs to continue its pressure on the county to make the Correction Center as safe as possible as long as maximum-security prisoners are held there
   "We have two issues — to make it safe while they’re still there and to continue our efforts to get them out," she said.
   Other members of the Township Committee made similarly scathingly critical comments of the county’s handling of the Brewer escape and the Correction Center.
   "This is a total disgrace to Mercer County," Kathy Bird said. "It’s appalling that this happened," Robert Highness added. "Our police handled this situation well … if anyone has played politics with this issue, it’s the county executive (Robert Prunetti)."
   Fran Bartlett urged residents and officials to initiate a "letter-writing" campaign to officials of all levels of government. "We should strike while the iron is hot," she said. "Sooner or later Prunetti will have to listen."
   Hopewell Township resident Bud Etchells objected to the county’s practice of transporting inmates from the Correction Center to the courthouse in Trenton on Route 29.
   "That road is enough of a problem already," he said.