Up to 1,000 inmates in New Jersey ordered released

Hundreds of inmates being held in New Jersey jails will be temporarily released as part of the state’s efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus, under an agreement struck late Sunday by the state’s prosecutors and criminal justice advocates.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner ordered two classes of inmates released by 6 a.m. Tuesday: Those serving jail sentences as a condition of probation and those serving time from a municipal court conviction.

Those in jail for probation violations and low-level crimes — fourth-degree, disorderly persons or petty disorderly persons offenses — will be released Thursday.

Up to 1,000 inmates will be released, according to the ACLU, which along with the state Office of the Public Defender sought the action.

“Unprecedented times call for rethinking the normal way of doing things, and in this case it means releasing people who pose little risk to their communities for the sake of public health and the dignity of people who are incarcerated,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Singha said in a statement.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and the County Prosecutors Association of the State of New Jersey also signed onto the agreement.

The order allows county prosecutors to challenge the release of inmates. It also suspends their sentences until the coronavirus crisis has passed rather than commute the sentences, but gives judges the discretion whether to order inmates back to jail later or give them credit for time served.

The Public Defender’s Office first sought the release Thursday in a letter to Rabner.

“It is inevitable that the virus will spread into the county jails and, when that happens, the health and well-being of inmates and jail staff members will be at tremendous risk,” Public Defender Joseph Krakora wrote. “It is therefore incumbent upon the criminal justice system to reduce our county jail populations to the extent possible without compromising public safety.”

Grewal said Friday that he recognized “that for some lower-level, non-violent offenders, it may be safer to temporarily release these individuals to their homes than to keep them detained in a county jail.”

In his order, Rabner also said Grewal agreed to relax limitations on victims’ benefits provided by the Violent Crime Compensation Act “to better provide victims who encounter the need for safety, health, financial, mental health or legal assistance from the State Victims of Crime Compensation Office.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2020/03/23/up-to-1-000-inmates-in-new-jersey-ordered-released-1268685
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Matt Friedman

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