New Jersey officials would return potentially hundreds fewer parole violators to prison and cap how long they could be held under changes Gov. Phil Murphy will announce in his annual state of the state address next week, reported the New Jersey Monitor.
Murphy will urge lawmakers to pass legislation that would
reduce how many people get hauled back to prison for technical parole
violations, which is when someone violates the conditions of their parole
rather than commits a new crime. Between 1,100 and 1,200 parolees are in state
custody on any given day for technical parole violations.
“Right now, roughly 10% of our state’s entire prison
population consists of people who are being held behind bars for committing a
technical parole violation, like missing a scheduled meeting or forgetting to report
a move to a new town,” Murphy is expected to say in his speech Tuesday
afternoon at the Statehouse in Trenton. “Nobody should lose their freedom
because of a technicality.”
The state Parole Board decides who is granted parole, under
what conditions, and when, as well as whether to charge someone with a parole
violation that will land them back in prison. Murphy included $1 million in the
current state budget — which runs through June — for a consultant to examine
how those decisions get made, although that work hasn’t yet started.
New Jersey law gives the parole board little discretion.
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