Facts and Policy Reforms for New Jersey
Like most states, New Jersey’s prison population has experienced massive growth in recent decades.
The state has also made great progress in curbing that growth. Between 1999 and 2016, among all the states, New Jersey reduced the largest percentage of its prison population. In the wake of sweeping reforms, the state’s local jail population dropped significantly from about 15,000 in 2012 to less than 9,000 people in 2018.
In spite of these encouraging changes, the state’s 2016 prison population was more than three times larger than it was in 1980. As of January 2019, there were 19,212 people incarcerated in state prisons in New Jersey. The state’s mass incarceration has profoundly and disproportionately impacted communities of color. Despite only accounting for 13 percent of the state’s adult population in 2017, Black adults made up 61 percent of New Jersey’s prison population. Further, an analysis of data from 2014 found that New Jersey had the largest disparity in the imprisonment rates for Black and white residents of any state in the nation.
Women in New Jersey are also greatly harmed by incarceration. Although the number of imprisoned women has dropped between 1999 and 2016, women who remain in New Jersey prisons are vulnerable to abuse and trauma during their incarceration. The Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women is currently the subject of a Justice Department investigation into sexual abuse by staff. Evidence collected by the ACLU of New Jersey has found that transgender women are also consistently misgendered and improperly detained in men’s prisons, leaving them even more vulnerable to violence, discrimination, and improper provision of medical care.
But New Jersey can change. Our criminal justice system can be different.
New Jersey can dramatically reduce its incarcerated population by implementing just a few sensible reforms:
- Reducing the range of activity that is criminalized, from decriminalizing sex work to ending arrests for drug possession.
- Expanding judicial discretion.
- Expanding treatment for mental health and substance use.
- Requiring robust data collection and transparency throughout the criminal legal system.
- Improving parole and release policies and practices to ensure that eligible people are paroled more quickly.
If New Jersey were to implement these and other reforms outlined in this Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint, by 2025 it could have 10,120 fewer people in its prison system, saving over $1 billion that could be invested in schools, services, and other resources that would strengthen communities.
For more information, along with a detailed breakdown of New Jersey’s prison population and the reforms needed to reduce it, click here.