Social Justice Committee Policy & Legislative Analysis Round Up – November 2020
By: Sharon Price-Cates, Past President ABWL-NJ
Governor Phil Murphy has signed into law numerous social justice bills since the coronavirus pandemic and the “national reckoning,” of disparities and disparate outcomes linked to race. Yet, a key bill that advocates have urged will address the disproportionate racial impact caused by criminal sentencing laws has stalled. According to a national report by the Sentencing Project “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons,” New Jersey has the highest disparity rate of Black and White incarceration: 12 to 1. This is one of the lingering results of 1980’s “War on Drugs” focus on mandatory sentencing and similar “three-strikes” laws.
Governor Murphy re-instituted the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission (Commission) to review these disparities. And on October 19, 2020, the Governor also signed into law three of four bills passed by the Legislature implementing recommendations in the November 12, 2019 Report of the Commission, chaired by former Attorney General, Chief Justice Deborah Poritz (Ret.). Collectively, the sponsors in the Senate are Sandra B. Cunningham, Nicholas P. Scutari, Teresa Ruiz, Nelli Pou and Shirley K. Turner. In the General Assembly, the sponsors are Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Linda Carter, Shanique Spaights, Yvonne Lopez, Pedro Mejia, Gordon Johnson, Shavonda Sumter, Adam Taliaferro and William Spearman.
The Commission’s key recommendations to eliminate certain mandatory minimum sentencing (A4369/S2586) passed the Senate 22-15 and the General Assembly 52-19-3. However, to date, the Governor has not acted. The Commission’s Report had urged on a retroactive basis, the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug and property crimes and reducing the mandatory minimum sentences for second degree robbery and burglary to 50 percent. This would give current inmates an opportunity to seek early release. Under current law a prison sentence typically includes a mandatory minimum term of from one-third to one-half of the sentence imposed, thus barring parole eligibility during that period. The mandatory minimum for second degree robbery and second burglary is currently 85 percent of the sentence imposed. A portion of the bill passed by the Legislature was amended to include the offense of official misconduct. That was not an offense included in the Commission’s recommendations.
Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal has publicly indicated support for the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug sentences, diverting resources instead to crime prevention, treatment and reentry efforts. It appears that a delay in moving forward may be related to coupling the official misconduct offense to non-violent drug offense and property offense portions of the Commission’s recommendations.
Governor Murphy did sign into law P.L. 2020, c. 106 (A2370/S2594). It creates a “compassionate release” program that replaces the current medical parole law for end of life inmates, with terminal conditions, permanent physical incapacity and other reasons defined in the bills. On the same day, Governor Murphy signed into law P.L. 2020, c. 109 (A4371/S2595). The Commission had urged that the savings in reduction of the prison population be used for crime prevention and recidivism programs along with funding for the Department of Corrections to improve infrastructure for tracking inmate trends, data collection and analysis in partnership with academic institutions. This new law requires the Commissioner of Corrections, in consultation with the Chair of the State Parole Board and the State Treasurer, to conduct a study to determine the fiscal impact of cost savings resulting from a reduction of the overall prison population due to the compassionate release program, as well as the elimination of mandatory minimum terms of parole ineligibility. A special fund would also be created; the “Corrections Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention Fund.” Monies in the fund must be dedicated to support recidivism reduction programs, including community-based and prison-based programs, such as educational and vocational training, and for other services to facilitate inmates’ successful reentry. The bills also require that the Commissioner of Corrections summarize the study results in an annual report to the Governor and Legislature.
Also, Governor Murphy did sign into law P.L. 2020, c. 110 (A4373/S2592). The Commission had recommended a new mitigating factor for youth, as well as creating an opportunity for re-sentencing or release for youthful offenders who were juveniles tried as adults and given long prison terms. It is now a mitigating factor in sentencing that the defendant was under the age of 26 when the offense was committed.
Closing out the month of November Governor Murphy’s November 24, 2020, virtual bill signing mandating and regulating law enforcement use of body-worn cameras (S1163 & A4312), highlighted law enforcement, social justice, Legislative and executive branch efforts to work towards greater improvements to transparency, public safety and trust in law enforcement, while helping local government with the costs. The cost of maintaining the data systems, as opposed to upfront cost to purchase body-worn cameras, had been a major concern for many police departments. Governor Murphy invited ABWL-NJ’s Social Justice Committee Chairwoman, Carolyn V. Chang, to give comments at the virtual signing of P.L. 2020, c. 128. New Jersey state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver, sponsors Senator Shirley Turner and Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and stakeholders representing law enforcement were among the invited speakers. Chang noted that the bill to mandate body-worn cameras dated back to Senator Shirley Turner’s efforts starting in 2014 following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri and gained additional support following the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. The bill signing, according to Chang, represents a “win” for both law enforcement and communities. The regulation of body-worn cameras is the subject of P.L. 2020, c. 129 also signed into law.
