Credit: (AP Photo/Mel Evans)Some people awaiting criminal trials would have access to a new program that offers mental health, legal, addiction services and more, under a plan lawmakers introduced Thursday.
Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who heads the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, said he hopes the program would get “low-crime risk” individuals the assistance they need, and insisted that the program would reduce recidivism rates. The goal, he said at a news conference with lawmakers, is to reduce pretrial detention rates and to provide services before potential incarceration, when his organization typically offers them after.
The program, under a bill (S-3588) introduced Thursday, would be tested in Monmouth and Union counties with the possibility of extending throughout the state. The New Jersey Reentry Corporation, which in part receives funding from the state, would manage and fund the program.
An individual would be deemed eligible for the new services after undergoing a “biopsychosocial assessment,” as McGreevey called it, that takes place during the application process for the existing pretrial diversion programs in state Superior Court. Such programs allow defendants, with approval from a judge, to avoid criminal prosecution if they adhere to mandated requirements. This new pretrial service program may be mandatory at a judge’s discretion.
“Offering services during the pretrial release period provides greatly needed assistance to court-involved individuals, increases the likelihood of compliance with conditions of release, and helps to ensure public safety for the community,” McGreevey said at the news conference, reading from a new report his organization published supporting pretrial service programs.
Rehabilitation, not punishment
Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union), the bill’s sole sponsor and the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said “the primary goal of the criminal justice system is not to punish, but to rehabilitate.”
“In order to achieve this goal, people must have access to support services throughout the duration of their time within the system, which begins at the time of arrest,” Stack said.
The bill is being proposed as other legislators have taken a noticeably “tough-on-crime” stance by moving forward with legislation that would upgrade the offenses of certain crimes. Social justice advocates argue those bills would put more Black and Latino people into the criminal justice system.
Those bills are scheduled for a hearing Monday in Stack’s committee.
“Everyone’s first point of contact with the criminal justice system [is] police. That is their first point of contact and is a huge determiner of whether or not they will end up in jail or incarcerated,” said Marleina Ubel, senior policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective. “So if we really want to reduce the impacts and the reach of this penal system, then we should be putting a stop to all of these tough-on-crime bills that are popping up in the Legislature.”
Wary of what’s involved
Some advocates, who were not involved in discussions about the pretrial program, remained cautious of the bill. They said that the informal name of the program, referred to as a “preentry program,” assumes that an individual will need to be incarcerated in the first place.
“Housing, employment, voluntary drug treatment, mental health, these are all very, very important things,” said the Rev. Amos Caley, senior fellow at Salvation and Social Justice. “My criticism comes from … the trust that this line of thinking has, in the system, ultimately fixing itself if we just fix the individuals that are landing here.”
‘My criticism comes from … the trust that this line of thinking has, in the system, ultimately fixing itself if we just fix the individuals that are landing here.’ — Rev. Amos Caley, senior fellow at Salvation and Social Justice
“When truly, it’s a system that preys off of poor people … and it’s a system that preys on Black and brown people,” added Caley, who works closely with families impacted by the criminal legal system.
Caley said that he was proud of criminal justice reform that New Jersey has made in the past — like bill sponsor Assemblyman Raj Mukherji’s (D-Hudson) work to release certain incarcerated individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic — and that legislators need to address the “punitive” criminal justice system.
“It’s not that we wouldn’t necessarily need something like this,” said Caley. “But not before we address the more urgent critical problems which has to do with sentencing.”
