Trenton, January 19, 2010

Last minute bills reforming the Prison system were signed in to law by Jon Corzine in his last day in office.

With soaring deficits, NJ can no longer afford to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders.

People arrested for some drug offenses near schools will no longer face mandatory prison sentences. The state has imposed mandatory prison terms of one to three years for people caught dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school since 1987.

“The mandatory minimum sentencing the zones require has effectively created two different sentences for the same crime, depending on where an individual lives," Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) said in a statement. "This is geographic discrimination at its most basic."

Supporters of the bill say those sentences have unnecessarily stuffed New Jersey prisons with nonviolent offenders who deserve probation or access to drug treatment programs.

Almost 70 percent of the 6,720 drug offenders serving time in state prisons have mandatory minimum sentences, according to the Department of Corrections.

The bill passed yesterday would allow judges to reduce the required minimum sentence or impose probation, depending on whether the offense occurred when school was in session, its proximity to school grounds, and if children were present.

Sentences could not be reduced if the offense took place on school grounds or if it involved violence or a gun.

In addition, the bill will allow current inmates to appeal the mandatory minimum sentences they’ve already received.

While this is a positive development much remains to be done. Other bills that were passed by the NJ assembley and Senate were also signed into law:

Post-Release employment act (A 4198) and related bills:

Prisoner prior to be released are now to receive mandatory training so that they can better cope with life after prison. The bills (A4197, A4201, A4202), spearheaded by Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, were significantly scaled back after lawmakers balked at the price. They are now projected to cost $6 million, down from at least $10 million.

Supporters hope the bills lower the state's recidivism rate: 65 percent of inmates are back behind bars within five years of their release. New Jersey has about 25,600 state inmates, and it costs an average of $48,000 per year to keep each incarcerated. 

Also signed  into law was a bill that allows offenders who cannot afford to pay fines,  to work off their debt through community service.

NJ  spends  between $39,000 & $46,000 a year on each incarcerated prisoner. (It costs less than half that to send someone to college!)
 
Of the 26,000 prisoners in NJ jails, 29% are currently non-violent drug related prisoners who also need rehab with punishment. NJ releases 14,000 prisoners a year most of whom come back unless they are properly educated..
 
These bills mostly support conditions that would reduce recidivism. and save lives
as well as money. 
 
Another bill signed by Corizine,  stopped the dept of corrections from charging iand profiting from inflated costs for calls from prisoners to their families.

The bottom line is that NJ has finally taken steps to reduce its deficit by making it possible to divert funds spent on non-violent drug offenders to more productive uses while strengthening lins with families and reducing recidivism.
 
Useful links:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/nj_job_training_programs_reduc.html

http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2010/01/nj_gov_corzine.html#more