It has been a year since 5,300 inmates were released from New Jersey’s crowded prisons, the consequence of a bold law signed by Gov. Murphy in Oct. of 2020 to mitigate the spread of Covid.
This extraordinary experiment, the only one of its kind in the country, took 42% off our prison population in just 11 months, dropping it to a level we haven’t known since the 1980s.
Here is how it worked out: Only 9% of the first 2,500 offenders given their release 14 months ago have returned to custody – that’s below New Jersey’s typical 16% recidivism rate, according to a WNYC report – and though it is a mere snapshot of a complex process, it should compel a fresh analysis of incarceration and reentry in our state.
It is also a reminder that it takes courage to govern. Whereas every other state used executive orders or commutations to release hundreds of older and vulnerable offenders, Sen. Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) -- exasperated by the NJ Department of Corrections’ slow response to Covid ravaging our prisons – elected to share the political liability and drafted a bill that ultimately allowed thousands to be released up to eight months early.
The measure awarded non-violent inmates “good time off” in the form of public health credits, and because so many had accrued those credits, New Jersey released 2,200 offenders in a single day: Nov. 4, 2020.
The fear (and fearmongering) that this deluge could make a public health emergency worse was a happy misfire. The concern that it could overwhelm the reentry system remains a cautionary tale.
First thing first: “The main implication is that we can shorten sentences for a large number of people currently incarcerated without compromising public safety,” says Rutgers professor Todd Clear, the criminal justice expert who believes the law should be made permanent.
“There already were studies that show that releasing people earlier from prison does not affect recidivism, either increasing it or reducing it. All this law did was to move the release date up a few months.”
Alexander Shalom of the ACLU agrees that the rate “also forces us to grapple with important questions about sentencing more generally, about whether we’re taking the right approach in keeping people in as long as we do. Why wouldn’t we want to do it for less time, if you can do so without public safety consequences?”
John Jay professor Rev. Dr. Kimora, who directs the Osborne Association reentry program in New York, puts it this way: “The entire country should study what New Jersey is doing right now,” she says.
But the challenge of finding the housing, jobs, and health care for those trying to make their way back is ongoing, and the fact that thousands managed the transition speaks mostly to the stellar work done by reentry organizations – not only the giants such the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, the Jim McGreevey juggernaut with 13,000 clients, but the smaller ones like the formidable American Reentry Initiative in New Brunswick.
Even if the Legislature and Murphy don’t make the law permanent -- it applies during public health emergencies – the reentry process has been hindered by the lack of cooperation from the departments that have yet to fix what’s going on behind the walls, pre-release.
Their most glaring failure: The DOC and Motor Vehicle Commission provided only 15% of the inmates released in 2020 with state-issued ID cards – which are essentials for them to receive SNAP benefits, Social Security, Medicaid, employment, apartment rentals, and more. The DOC is required by law to provide these IDs, and this must become a priority for new DOC commissioner Victoria Kuhn.
It’s budget season, and suddenly we found a branch of a troubled system that actually seems to work. Let’s give it the support it deserves, and give releasees the dignity they have earned.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether it’s a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.