EHC Officials Want to Shut Down Harborfields

EGG HARBOR CITY — One month after a breakout at the Harborfields Youth Detention Center that captured national headlines, city residents and officials remain on edge pending the completion of a state investigation.

Last week, Mayor Lisa Jiampetti called on Atlantic County officials to explore options on how to close Harborfields, saying the facility does not benefit the city or its residents. City Council also passed a resolution urging the county to find a way to shut down Harborfields.

“I spoke with County Executive Dennis Levinson, and he agrees that this facility doesn’t do anything good for Egg Harbor City,” Jiampetti said at the meeting. “He also doesn’t think that any other town would want it.”

At one time, Harborfields was the place where most child offenders in Atlantic County spent time being locked up. More than a decade ago, however, a policy change in how youth offenders are treated in the criminal justice system greatly reduced the number of inmates.

Instead of putting children in Harborfields for minor offenses, they are now monitored by electronic bracelets in their own homes or in a youth shelter.

Those who are considered more dangerous are kept at Harborfields, and that has city officials and residents nervous about security at the facility.

“(Harborfields) is right across the street from the baseball and football fields. … That’s a little scary,” said Michelle James, an employee at Simply Sweet Cupcakes on Philadelphia Avenue and a lifelong local resident.

Michael Huggins, 18, of Bridgeton, was one of four inmates who overpowered a security guard and escaped the facility Nov. 15. He is charged with murder in connection to a 2016 killing in Bridgeton. Huggins was captured in Atlantic City after a nearly two-day manhunt.

Prior to that, the last time there was an escape from Harborfields was in 2012, when five young offenders got away for a brief time. They were recaptured in Egg Harbor City.

What made the November escape different was the nature of the accusations against Huggins, who was charged with murder in the Oct. 7, 2016, killing of Davonte Lee in Bridgeton. He was allowed to stay in Harborfields after he turned 18 because of a state law, changed a year ago, that keeps teens in juvenile facilities when they turn 18 instead of putting them in county jails.

“If there are young kids there who need help, that’s OK. But I think if you are accused of murder, you don’t belong there,” James said. “If a kid broke out of there before, it wasn’t a big deal. My mom actually fed a kid who broke out of there once.”

But despite what city officials and residents want, the county does not have power on policy changes at the facility and cannot make the decision to shut it down.

Howard Sefton, owner of Captain Howards Bait and Tackle shop on Philadelphia Avenue, said all it would take to secure Harborfields is more manpower and better technology.

“I don’t think they need to build a new $10 million facility at the taxpayers’ expense,” he said. “Train the guards as proper corrections officers. If you have someone who is charged with homicide, why wouldn’t they make a run for it? I would do the same thing if I was in their position.”

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ehc-residents-still-leery-of-harborfields-city-officials-would-like/article_b9a9d655-3ff4-57bc-beb3-d02d7d4d0309.html

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