Congressman Jeff Van Drew expressed disgust with Governor Phil Murphy after he signed a law allowing violent offenders to be released early from prison under a COVID-19 release program New Jersey criminal justice system
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said about 852 people were released Sunday, under a program reducing sentences for certain types of inmates in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
New Jersey has already released about 5,500 prisoners a few months ahead of their sentences under a program created by Murphy to alleviate crowding and other issues in the state’s prisons amid the pandemic.
“It is unacceptable and quite frankly, just disgusting, that New Jersey is using COVID-19 as an excuse to shut down prisons and allow violent offenders to be released early from prison,” said Van Drew. “Weak on crime policies being proposed and implemented by Democrats are permitting violent offenders to be released from prison early and freely walk our streets,”
“Governor Murphy announced that the COVID-19 public health emergency has ended in the state of New Jersey, as well as lifted mandates across the state, yet individuals who committed violent acts are still allowed to be released from prison prior of the end of their full sentence,” said Van Drew. “Additionally, there should be no discussion of closing prisons in South Jersey and rewarding individuals who committed unspeakable acts.”
“The main objective of prisons is to ensure that we keep our communities safe and individuals who pose a threat to society receive the punishment they deserve,” said Van Drew. “This is bad policy, and this is not how justice is served.,”
“Governor Murphy’s responsibility is to protect and serve the people of New Jersey, and by allowing violent criminals to be released from prison early, he is endangering the well-being of law-abiding civilians,” said Van Drew.
Former Gov. Jim McGreevey said New Jersey Reentry Corporation, a group he founded in 2015 to help prisoners reintegrate into society, plans to help detainees by providing emergency housing for those in need along with medical, behavioral, and dental diagnostic screenings, referrals, plus nutrition and healthy lifestyle support.
“The goal is to meet each person,” said McGreevey. “Every time we get sharper, better, and quicker.”
“The debate over which prisoners to release early and what to do with them rarely considers those charged with or convicted of violent crimes, except to declare that they should stay behind bars,” said John Pfaffn a professor of law at Fordham University. “Such refusal to think about crimes of violence is, unfortunately, to be expected. Even a decade into a sustained push to reform the way this country deals with crime, serious conversations about how we handle violence remain almost impossible.”
About 25 percent of the entire American prison population, or about 365,000 out of more than 1.3 million people, is serving time just for homicide, rape or sexual assault.
The clearance rate — the number of crimes reported to or known by the police that end in an arrest — is about 60 percent for homicides; of those arrested, 13 percent see their cases dismissed, and 80 percent get a felony conviction, with 90 percent going to prison. That means that only 43 percent of all homicides result in a prison admission.