NJ Supreme Court tweaks bail reform
TRENTON >> A new change in riskassessment protocols will likely result in New Jersey Superior Court judges more frequently signing detention orders against defendants who get arrested on gun charges and against defendants who get busted for new criminal activity while on pretrial release.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday approved key changes to criminal justice re format the request of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts. The approved changes have also been advocatedby the state Attorney General’ s Office as a way to help keep gun-toting criminals and repeat offenders off the streets.
New Jersey on Jan. 1 implemented sweeping reforms transforming the state’s criminal justice system into a risk-assessment regime. The state now has new powers to keep certain defendants in jail without bail for up to two years while their criminal cases play out in the courts. The new system also encourages judges to impose nonmonetary conditions of release for any newly arrested defendant not deemed to be a danger to the community or flight risk. The new system, by design, has made it extremely rare for new criminal defendants to be held on monetary bails.
The foundation of the state’s new criminal justice system is the creation of Pretrial Services and the creation of a Public Safety Assessment or PSA scoring system that effectively grades the potential likelihood of a defendant committing new criminal activity, the potential likelihood of a defendant failing to appear in court and the potential likelihood of a defendant obstructing justice through witness intimidation if released from jail pretrial.
But since bail reform went into effect on Jan .1, there have been multiple cases where Pretrial Services recommended the courts to release certain defendants who had been arrested on gun charges and multiple cases of Pretrial Services recommending release for certain defendants who had been arrested more than once this year on indictable charges.
There were also several high-profile gun crime arrests this year where state prosecutors have failed to file detention motions. That prompted state Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino on Wednesday to issue a revised directive that commanded prosecutors to apply for pretrial detention whenever a defendant gets arrested for a firearms offense.
Porrino on Wednesday also directed prosecutors to apply for pretrial detention whenever a defendant flees from police and gets arrested on a second-degree eluding offense that had created a risk of death or injury to any person.
It is harder for prosecutors to persuade Superior Court judges to sign detention orders in cases
where Pretrial Services recommends release. As such, the state Supreme Court on Thursday approved the Administrative Office of the Courts’ proposal that any defendant charged with a firearm weapons offense will now receive a Pretrial Services “no release” recommendation going forward.
The high court also approved a change that will result in repeat offenders — a defendant who has been arrested at least three times in the bail reform era — now receiving an automatic “no release” recommendation.
“Based on a review of empirical data and the legitimate concerns raised by various segments of the criminal justice community, we concluded that it was necessary to change how the system treats defendants arrested for certain types of offenses,” Judge Glenn A. Grant, acting administrative director of the courts, said Thursday in a statement. “We are pleased that the Supreme Court has acted on our recommendation and we will continue to monitor Criminal Justice Reform data to determine if further revisions are needed.”