TRENTON, N.J. – In an unprecedented move, N.J. Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner signed off on a consent order on Monday releasing hundreds of lower-level inmates from New Jersey’s jail facilities. The purported goal is to reduce prison crowding and, in so doing, slow the spread of COVID-19 inside the state’s corrections system.
The order (click here) – co-signed by the state attorney general and office of the public defender – provides for the release of prisoners serving sentences as a condition of probation and prisoners serving sentences for municipal court violations (including fourth degree crimes and disorderly persons offense like simple assault and shoplifting).
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Chief Justice Rabner order further provides that the release of up to 1,000 qualifying inmates needs to occur by Tuesday at 6 a.m.
Corrections officials can object to a specific prisoner’s release; the order also suspends rather than commutes jail sentences, meaning the jail individuals could be re-imprisoned after the state of emergency ends (whenever that happens, and assuming you can find’em).
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