TOMS RIVER, NJ—Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick today said he will fight to prevent former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie from hosting a grand opening of a new prisoner-entry facility in the heart of Downtown Toms River.
The mayor has now ordered a full review of all NJRC permits and applications to ensure compliance with local ordinances and the center’s adhering to municipal code.
Rodrick commended the job NJReEntry does to help ex-convicts become better citizens and to help them find jobs to reintegrate into society, but said, “They picked the absolute worst place to put this.”
“This is a terrible location for a prisoner re-entry facility,” Rodrick said. “Each day, hundreds of Toms River High School South students walk the streets downtown three times a day and will be passing this building on their way to 7-11 or some of the restaurants across the street during their lunch periods. Adding drug addicts and ex-convicts raises serious public safety concerns for us.”
The mayor also noted that the drug rehab business has been a lucrative one for the former governor.
“Chris Christie thinks he can come to Toms River and push his weight around,” Rodrick said. “He must be out to lunch, no pun intended.”
Rodrick said he and the township council were shocked to find out that NJ ReEntry (NJRC) was actively working on converting the former Chase Bank location into a rehabilitation center for ex-convicts in New Jersey.
“We’re trying to attract new businesses to our Downtown area and to turn it into a recreation and event center and this prisoner re-entry center will make our job of revitalizing downtown nearly impossible,” said Mayor Rodrick. “Who would want to invest potentially millions of dollars into a downtown business opportunity knowing it is also a hub for ex-convicts and recovering drug addicts?”
NJRC is a corporation operated by former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey. This week it was announced that former Governor Chris Christie would be the host of the organization’s grand opening of their new facility downtown.
According to its website, NJRC has offices in Jersey City, Carteret, Elizabeth, Neptune, and Paterson. They currently maintain an office in Toms River, on Route 166, further north from the downtown center.
The NJRC works with probationers, parolees, and drug addicts, according to its website and is part of New Jersey’s Community Reintegration Program funded through a federal grant under the Second Chance Act. It is led by Executive Director Dr. Gloria Bachman, an OBGYN who also runs the PROUD Gender Center at Rutgers University.
Township records show NJRC initially wanted to use the facility to operate as a drug treatment clinic, but that proposal was rejected because it was not a permitted use under the township’s zoning laws. Now, they are saying the facility will only be used as an administrative office.
In January, former Governor McGreevey personally signed an affidavit affirming that no drug treatment services would be conducted but said the business would provide services to ex-convicts.
The application was previously denied three times between December and Mid-January as a drug treatment facility as it is not an allowed use in the downtown village zone. After being notified they would have to appear before the zoning board, McGreevey provided a signed affidavit that the business would conform to the village zoning district.
Rodrick questioned the motives of NJRC and the 15-year lease the organization signed at the former bank site.
“You have an organization that is a never-ending revolving door for drug addicts and ex-convicts that operates mostly in major urban centers of New Jersey, and they want to use Toms River just for ‘office space’?” Rodrick said.