Camden County Jail keeps having population manager turnover

A position in the Camden County Jail that has faced high turnover will be filled on an interim level this month, making that person who fills it the sixth jail population manager since 2011.

The move comes amid a vacancy in the position and a letter from U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle, who told county officials on Jan. 26 that he was "very concerned" about the turnover.

The jail population manager focuses on how inmates are processed, from arrest to court date, and makes recommendations on how to improve their movement in the system.

The lack of consistency in the position has some befuddled, including the most recent manager, Brian Jacobs.

His one-year contract was not renewed by the county freeholders in November, for reasons he said he does not know. The jail population dropped from 1,535 in March to about 1,370 by December, where it remains.

"We were getting what I thought was good, steady progress, and we would give the court updates when asked," Jacobs, now a lawyer for a Haddon Heights firm, said Tuesday. "I never got any information from the county that they were dissatisfied."

County officials did not respond to an inquiry about Jacobs' contract.

Why other managers have left in recent years is unclear. Some spent a year or less in the role, including those hired on a permanent basis.

Jacobs said he did not want to speculate on the turnover, but said the position - and specifically, recommending changes on how inmates are processed - has its challenges.

"It is difficult for a person in that position to try to make those changes," Jacobs said. "And the changes that you do see, if any, are small, incremental, and probably will take some time to actually get some traction. But like I said, I thought we were making some pretty good progress."

The person taking the interim role, Patrick Jablonski, begins Monday. He works for the criminal justice consulting firm Luminosity. An official there did not return a call Tuesday.

The Florida-based firm, with which the county contracts, is also helping search for a permanent candidate, whom it hopes to select "in the near future," said Dan Keashen, a county spokesman.

The population management position "is a unique skill set," he said. "So it has taken time to identify the right long-term candidate."

Overcrowding has long been an issue at the jail. In the late 1980s, then-Corrections Commissioner William Fauver called the jail's population problem "one of the worst" in the state.

The jail remains around 100 above its capacity of 1,267.

In his letter to county officials last month, Simandle said having a jail population manager is "essential to success."

"The court is concerned for the lack of stability and experience in the jail population manager position," he wrote.

The county said it had been planning to fill the role on an interim basis before Simandle's letter.