That's pretty cool. I've been by that a thousand times but never noticed it before.

Here's an article about it from right before it closed:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/26/nyr ... -of-4-investigations.html

Crowded Jail in New Jersey Is Focus of 4 Investigations
By GEORGE JAMES, Special to the New York Times
Published: March 26, 1989

JERSEY CITY? The Hudson County Board of Freeholders is investigating the Hudson County Jail, one of the most overcrowded county jails in New Jersey and long a place where troubles range from the pathetic to the tragic.

The freeholders' inquiry is examining a broad range of conditions in the jail, from reports of inmates sleeping on floors to a beating death of a prisoner. That death is being investigated by the F.B.I., the county prosecutor and the United States Attorney's Office in Newark.

A deputy warden and two guards have been arrested and charged with murder in the inmate's death amid wider allegations that a ''goon squad'' of corrections officers has made unprovoked attacks on inmates.

The county prosecutor, Paul M. DePascale, said the inmate, Arnaldo Ortega, 27 years old, in jail on a burglary charge, was beaten in an elevator for up to 20 minutes late March 8 and early March 9 after he asked for a painkiller for a chronic headache. Two Other Deaths

Then he languished in a holding pen for 16 hours before being taken to a hospital, the prosecutor said.

Two other deaths have occurred at the jail within the last 14 months. One was declared a suicide and the other was attributed to natural causes. In 1981, seven inmates burned to death when a cellblock mattress caught fire.

Allegations of racism and violence at the jail have already increased tensions there, prompting county investigations. But Mr. Ortega's death in a hospital on March 11 of extensive ''blunt force injuries'' to the head and body has drawn renewed attention to overcrowding in the Hudson County Jail as well as in jails and prisons throughout the State.

Assignment Judge Burrell Ives Humphreys of State Superior Court, in a March 17 hearing on conditions at the jail, said he believed overcrowding contributed to Mr. Ortega's death. Sleeping on the Floor

Some inmates in recent months have had to sleep on the floor without mattresses, one for two months, prisoner advocates told the judge at the hearing. County officials denied this. As of Feb. 28, the state correctional system was at 115 percent capacity with 16,475 inmates, said James Stabile, a spokesman for the State Department of Corrections.

An additional 2,190 state-sentenced prisoners were being housed in county jails at that time to relieve overcrowding in state prisons. About 28 were in the Hudson County jail, he said.

As of March 14, jails in 21 counties were at 162 percent of capacity with 13,272 inmates, according to the State Administrative Office of the Courts. Deprived of Their Rights

In May 1982, a Superior Court judge said conditions at the 63-year-old Hudson County jail were deplorable and ruled that inmates were being deprived of their constitutional rights because of overcrowding. At the time, the average daily population was over 500 inmates. As of March 14, the number was 869. With a rated capacity of 302 inmates, the eight-story Hudson jail was at 288 percent of capacity as of that date. Among large county jails, only Passaic County's was higher at 332 percent with 1,511 inmates.

The population explosion in state and county correction units has been caused, in part, in the last several years by a state crackdown on drugs and stiffer sentencing laws.

Both Warden Lawrence A. Butler, who assumed his post last September, and Craig K. Donnelly, president of the local Policemen's Benevolent Association, which represents corrections officers said there was no evidence a ''goon squad'' existed at the jail.

But former inmates have told stories of many attacks.

One of them, Henry Rivera, 23, who, according to jail records, served a week in the jail in June on a charge arising from a domestic dispute, said he had seen at least three attacks on inmates by guards, usually arising from requests for medication.

The lawyer for the Ortega family, Patrick G. Patel, said he had taken dozens of calls from inmates and guards who said a ''goon squad'' did exist. Morale Is Low

Warden Butler and Mr. Donnelly said most corrections officers, whose salaries range from $16,080 to $26,2l9, perform their duties honorably.

Morale is low following the arrest of Deputy Warden Raymond Murray, and Officers Thomas Murphy and David Dumers. The men have been held in the Bayonne Municipal Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. Of 181 corrections officers, 40 percent are black, 40 percent white, and 20 percent Hispanic, a county official said.

At least 20 more officers are needed to staff the jail, county officials say, and officers have had to work mandatory double shifts, another factor that has increased tensions at the jail.