Is demolition in store for a Pinelands juvenile detention center?

Carol Comegno, Cherry Hill Courier-Post
·2 min read
A red X danger marker warns against trespassers at the closed Burlington County Juvenile Detention Center in Pemberton Township. The county wants to demolishs it.
A red X danger marker warns against trespassers at the closed Burlington County Juvenile Detention Center in Pemberton Township. The county wants to demolishs it.

Burlington County officials want to demolish its now empty juvenile detention center on the edge of the New Jersey Pinelands in Pemberton Township.

The county has applied for demolition permission from the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, which oversees all preservation and development areas within the 1.1 million-acre national reserve spanning Burlington, Ocean, Camden and other South Jersey counties.

County government spokesman Dave Levinsky said county officials want to tear down the center because it has become a "nuisance" that has attracted trespassers and also needs extensive renovation.

The county closed the facility in late 2019 and began sending its juvenile offenders to the Middlesex County juvenile detention center.

Levinsky also said there are no future plans as yet for the property, which is located across Pemberton-Browns Mills Road from the abandoned former main campus of Rowan College at Burlington County.

Meanwhile, the county continues to provide a number of services to at-risk youth and juveniles who have entered the judicial system, including counseling. Those programs are operated or administered by the Burlington County Department of Human Services, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, the corrections department and various service providers.

The Burlington County Juvenile Detention Center sits idle at a government complex in Pemberton Township on the periphery of the New Jersey Pinelands
The Burlington County Juvenile Detention Center sits idle at a government complex in Pemberton Township on the periphery of the New Jersey Pinelands

"The county also has a shared service contract with Middlesex County to cover the costs of Burlington County juveniles the courts order to be detained," he added.

The vacant Burlington County Juvenile Detention Center is 13,000 square feet and located on a county-owned, 351-acre tract encompassing sections of the agricultural production and regional growth zones of the Pineland, according to the application and zone maps. Other operating county buildings are part of the county complex, including the highway department and a drug treatment center leased to Maryville Addiction Treatment Center of New Jersey.

The demolition application requires a vote by the full Pinelands Commission, which has not yet listed it as an agenda item for action.

Carol Comegno loves telling stories about South Jersey life, history and military veterans for the Courier Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. If you have a story to share, call her at 609-533-0306 or email  ccomegno@gannettnj.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Pemberton Township NJ detention center may be demolished