An ongoing legal fight over the housing of juveniles ordered detained on criminal charges in New Jersey is ending in one court. But the battle appears far from over.
The matter is moving to appellate court, where the state and Atlantic County will continue to spar over who is responsible for finding housing for young people being held in juvenile detention.
Atlantic County and the state Juvenile Justice Commission filed dueling lawsuits over the issue last year, but they reached an agreement earlier this month to end their cases in trial court and move the matter to the appellate division.
The case began when Atlantic County went to court in September, saying it faced a crisis in finding beds for detained juveniles because a spike in crime led to overcrowding and riots at its juvenile detention facility.
County officials there said they had to scramble to find housing in detention centers in other counties and accused the state Juvenile Justice Commission of failing to manage the issue.
In its court filings, Atlantic County said young people were in some cases detained at police stations for many hours — in violation of the law — while efforts were made to find facilities that could take them. That situation created potential civil rights liability for the county, officials argued.
In response, the commission maintained that it’s up to the counties, not the commission, to find open space in juvenile detention centers.
All seven county youth detention facilities in New Jersey — located in Atlantic, Bergen, Camden, Essex, Middlesex, Morris and Ocean — are owned and operated by the counties where they’re located. Counties without centers contract with the facilities to house their juvenile detainees.
After Atlantic County filed its suit, the commission issued an order in November requiring that the county not exceed the 20-bed capacity at its juvenile detention center. The county was also ordered to develop a plan for finding beds in one of the other six detention centers when its facility is full.
The order required the other counties with centers to accommodate Atlantic County detainees.
Additionally, the commission wanted Atlantic County’s plan to address the issues that lead to regular overcrowding at its facility.
In response to Atlantic County’s suit, Superior Court Judge Michael J. Blee, assignment judge for Atlantic and Cape May counties, issued a preliminary injunction in December, ruling that it was the commission’s responsibility to find housing for detained juveniles, not the county’s.
In his Dec. 23 ruling, Blee also found that claims in Atlantic County’s suit that the commission violated the state Civil Rights Act and breached terms of a contract between the county and the commission should be considered by the appellate court.
In the meantime, the commission filed a lawsuit of its own in Mercer County Superior Court in December, saying Atlantic County failed to submit a plan for how it will manage its overcrowding issues.
Under an agreement reached last week between the commission and Atlantic County officials, the parties signed consent orders that will soon end the cases in Atlantic and Mercer counties.
But the matter is headed for appellate court.
The Atlantic County ruling has been converted from a preliminary to a final injunction, which clears the way for the commission to file a challenge to Blee’s decision in appellate court, according to an official familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, the Mercer County case will be dismissed, the official said.
A spokesperson for the Juvenile Justice Commission said the agency does plan to appeal Blee’s order.
Atlantic County and the other six counties with juvenile detention facilities have also filed motions in appellate court challenging the November commission order.
Those documents, filed in December and January, question whether the commission exceeded its statutory authority when it ordered the other counties to accept Atlantic County youths and when it delegated responsibility to Atlantic County to assign juveniles to other counties.
No dates have been set yet for arguments on those matters, a court official confirmed.
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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
