By: James Fleischmann
Our speaker on Monday, 27 April, was newly elected Sherriff of Union County, Joseph Cryan.
The Sherriff served as administrative undersheriff for eleven years before running for the top spot in November, 2014, following the death of Ralph Froehlich who served as Sherriff for well over three decades.
In addition to serving as undersheriff, Sherriff Cryan was also a member of the NJ General Assembly, where he represented the 20th district for six terms. He served one term as Majority Leader of the Assembly and chaired over a dozen committees during his tenure.
The Sherriff described the primary duties of the Office as providing for the safety and security of the Union County Court facility in Elizabeth along with assisting the Department of Homeland Security, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Domestic Violence Joint Task Force, and the United States Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force in their activities. As Sherriff, Mr. Cryan intends to carry on much of the work already in progress, but noted there was room for improvements. He explained the Jail alone has a budget of about $56MM and will look for ways to run the facility more efficiently including the possibility of transferring some prisoners to the Hudson County facility, where space is available. High on his to-do list is the support for prisoner re-entry programs in the area. The Sherriff pointed out it costs the County over $50K/yr. to house a prisoner and an effective re-entry system, if it can lower the recidivism rate, can save the community substantial funds. He noted keeping costs down is a significant part of his job.