There was a sense of both pride and relief in the corridors of the new Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office facility Monday, where county officials and office staff gathered to celebrate the nearly finished state-of-the-art space.
The upgrade from an old building now headed toward demolition to the newly renovated Secaucus building had been years in the making, and it won’t only be employees who benefit from the results, said Prosecutor Esther Suarez.
Children brought in for investigations will now have a wing outfitted specifically for them. Families will have privacy in smaller waiting rooms. And families of victims anxiously waiting on DNA evidence will now have results within days rather than months, Suarez said.
“This will be a good place for all of us,” she said after the ceremonial ribbon was cut.
The prosecutor’s office moved out its Duncan Avenue, Jersey City operations to a building in the county’s Meadowview complex on County Avenue in Secaucus this summer. It now houses more than 100 staff in divisions including the homicide unit, special victims unit, crime scene unit and narcotics task force.
The prosecutor’s office is maintaining its headquarters at the Hudson County Administration Building on Newark Avenue in Jersey City.
The new facility includes two detention wings — holding cells for those arrested while they’re being processed — as well as an expanded forensics lab, and newly, a child advocacy center, DNA lab and cybercrime lab.
The child advocacy center has trees on the walls, a playroom and in offices, chairs specifically designed to help a child sit eye-to-eye with an adult.
Suarez said she anticipates child advocacy centers becoming a new state requirement in the near future.
Security measures at the Secaucus facility include “sally port,” a secured, controlled garage and building entry that locks before prisoners are allowed out of vehicles, officials said.
DNA, currently processed at the state lab in Hamilton, will now be processed at an in-house lab, one of the final parts of the office being completed. That will allow DNA to be processed within days instead of months and may allow the county to start bringing in DNA from other counties so as to offset costs, Suarez said.
Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise called the old facility at the foot of Duncan Avenue a “disgrace.”
“Something needed to be done about it,” said DeGise, who noted that he considers the new space part of his legacy. He is not running for reelection after his term expires Dec. 31, 2023.
The building, a stone’s throw from the Hackensack River, is being demolished to make room for a new Department of Public Works facility.
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