New Jersey's criminal justice system is
undergoing a major reform. Based on a
voter-approved constitutional amendment, includes reforms to the bell system and
a new speedy trial law which sets time
frames for criminal cases. >>As for bail
the problem historically has been to
fold that too many poor defendants who
pose a minimal risk of danger ,minimal
risk of flight ,sit in jail for too long
pretrial because they can't make even
modest amounts of bail. And in the course
of doing so many of them lose access
to families to medication may lose their
jobs.
Meanwhile defendants are accused of
serious violent crimes who pose a
significant risk of danger and flight, have
been eligible for bail under our
constitution. And if they have access to
clean money are able to make bail and be
released which presents a real public
safety issue for witnesses for the
community at large.
>>Under the new system once a defendant is
arrested police will contact a judge who
will decide if the case proceeds as a
summons or on a warrant. If it is a
summons the defendant will be released.
If it is decided the case moves forward
on a warrant the defendant will appear
before a judge within 48 hours to
determine the conditions of release.
Those conditions could range from a
phone call reminding them to appear in
court to house arrest or electronic
monitoring.  Chief Justice Stuart Rabner
says the system will >> Move away from a
system that relies heavily on imposing
money bail to one that relies instead an
objective risk based measures to
evaluate the level of risk that each
individual defendant presents and
determine the appropriate conditions for
release to be supervised by pretrial
services officers. The other end of the
spectrum defendants who pose a
significant risk of danger and flight
can be held without bail in line with
the governor's original proposal on
pretrial detention and the
constitutional amendment. And the new law,
as you know, provides for a speedy trial
act that has finite period of time for
the period from arrest until indictment
and from indictment until trial with
appropriate exclusions for
a number of different proceedings. >>This
change will create a new pretrial
services division whose officers will
conduct an estimated 70,000 risk
assessments per year. Those risk
assessments help judges and the court
decide how to set conditions of release
for criminal defendants.
>>The approach that we are embarking on exists in other places with success. In
Kentucky for example, more dependents are
being detained who present a high risk
and more defense overall are being
released pretrial. Yet there's been no
increase in the rate of failures to
appear and the arrest rate for
defendants who are released pretrial
on supervision has dropped . >>Pilot
programs in Camden, Morris, Sussex and
Passaic counties begin March 2016. The
new law takes effect statewide January
1st 2017 and the judiciary has been
working on systems and procedures to
make sure it happens smoothly and on
time. >>And that when that happens our
state will have a better and a fair
system of criminal justice that we will
be proud of
