Jail closes after 134 years in operation. Inmates are moved to a new and expanded facility, pictured above. The current Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark holds about 2,500 inmates and federal detainees. The rapid growth of the prison industry provokes an uneasy observation by Newark City Historian Charles Cummings:

“The grand old facility exuded warmth, character, personality, even coziness, if such things can be said about a jail…. By comparison, the new Essex County Jail is nothing more than an impersonal concrete bunker.”

“Jail Grew and Evolved Alongside Crime Patterns,” The Star-Ledger, 19 March 2001