Ensuring the safety, health and well-being of incarcerated people is the primary goal of the New Jersey Ombudsperson. The office’s just-released 2023 annual report notes the top concerns reported at correctional facilities across the state are about housing, classification, medical issues, mental health and outside communications. But, according to the report, “People reached out to the Ombudsperson Office about personal property and money more than any other area of concern, accounting for 2,016 contacts between September 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023.” These came from hundreds of people requesting help finding and trying to be reimbursed for lost or stolen property, “often following a housing transfer with the Department of Corrections.” 

The most property-related complaints emanated from South Woods State Prison, with 500 contacts. This was followed by New Jersey State Prison, Northern State Prison, Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, Garden State Correctional Facility, East Jersey State Prison, Bayside State Prison, Mid-State Correctional Facility and, last, with the fewest contacts, the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center. 

“In the coming year, the Ombudsperson Office intends to focus some of its systemic monitoring and data collection efforts on this process of securing and delivering people’s possessions and the difficulty people have in getting replacement items or refunds,” the report says.