The residents were promised that a jail annex would be closed when the new cells were operational.

The inmate, Jeffrey Hardy of Roosevelt was walking to the mess hall from the jail annex with 43 other inmates supervised by two guards when he escaped, said Sheriff Joseph J. Santacroce.

Wednesday afternoon, Bergen County Sheriff Robert Herb stood in front of the new jail annex, hand on his holster, and said, "I expect great things from these cells."

Another, John Russell, 31, strangled himself with shoelaces in a shower at the jail annex, Mr. Fahy said.

The New York State Department of Correction decided in 1988 to convert nine row houses into a 60-bed jail annex, and construction is to begin next year.

The court had a small jail annex in the rear, and nearby were a pillory for public whippings and a hanging tree for more serious punishments.

A $6 million prefabricated building with room for 208 inmates is under construction at the county's jail annex in North Caldwell and scheduled for opening in the spring.

To make matters worse, he said, the state has taken over Hudson County's two jail annexes, which currently hold more than 600 state inmates and no county inmates.

Mr. Vitiello, the corrections officer, said he was at the jail annex in North Caldwell when Miss Michaels, then 26, was convicted on April 15, 1988, and taken to the jail.

Before the column appeared, Mr. Marchant gave his superiors a written request from the reporter, Michael Winerip, to interview him and some of his students at the jail annex in Caldwell where he worked.