NCJ Number
120494
Date Published
1989
Length
134 pages
Annotation
The overcrowding of the adult and juvenile correctional systems in New Jersey must be addressed promptly by providing additional secure facilities for violent offenders and devising cost-effective alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders.
Abstract
The report recommends that the State legislature provide funding for 500 additional prison beds and appoint a Blue Ribbon Study Commission to examine New Jersey's criminal code as it relates to the corrections system with a view to improving the current situation of overcrowding. Among the recommendations regarding alternative corrections are dividing administrative and funding responsibility for pre-dispositional and post-dispositional services by transferring the former to State criminal and family courts, considering house arrest for county-sentenced inmates on work release, accelerating parole eligibility for non-violent prisoners, charging adult probationers a monthly fee to defray county expenses for reducing probation officer caseloads, and treating special categories of troubled youth outside the correctional system whenever possible. 27 tables, 18 figures, 2 appendixes.