Division of Criminal Justice Looking Into Missing Monies from Juvenile Inmate Accounts

The State Division of Criminal Justice is looking into where some $16,000 missing from a bank account used to purchase items for juveniles housed in the Ocean County justice system has gone.

"If we come across any types of fraud, we have to report that to the governor or the governor's representative," John Termyna, assistant state auditor told Patch. "We reported our findings to the Criminal Justice Division."

The auditor's office said there were a "number of issues" dealing with a bank account that is used to take groups of juvenile inmates offsite on various trips, including missing funds along with possibly forged signatures. 

"When a youth worker takes a group of kids somewhere, the park, shopping mall, whatever, that youth worker is given some money, which they can use on each inmate for different things, like sneakers, etc," he said. "We had some questions on some of the receipts and the amounts being returned. Also, we were questioning whether some of the signatures of residents were accurate."

He said the report reviewed 15 centers in all, but according to the auditor's office, the questionable signatures on forms were all at the Ocean County site, which is located in Lacey. The audit was of a state program run in Ocean County, according to county officials. The Criminal Justice Division is now investigating, Termyna said.