TRENTON – State Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney today vowed to fight any attempt by the State to move violent sexual predators into South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton.
Once word gets around, opposition to such a move will be “aggressive, intense and committed” by local officials and concerned parents, Senator Sweeney said.
State officials say no final decision has been made, but if such a move advances, Sen. Sweeney told Corrections Commissioner George W. Hayman he would do “whatever is in my legislative and political powers to block your plan.”
Hayman told the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Monday that South Woods is among the potential sites to shift more than 350 violent sexual predators from their current facilities in Kearny and Woodbridge Township.
On behalf of all residents of Cumberland County, Sen. Sweeney told Hayman in a letter that, “unequivocally…, we do not want these violent sexual predators dumped in our back yards.”
With three correctional facilities already, Cumberland County “already bears more than its fair share of the State’s corrections population,” Sen. Sweeney told Hayman.