Why did New Jersey reform its criminal justice system?

The criminal justice system is rooted in two principles: That those accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty and that they have a constitutional right to a speedy trial. Under the former system, in which judges set a dollar amount of bail, poor defendants who posed little risk of danger or flight were sometimes held in county jail because they couldn’t make even modest amounts of bail. One study revealed that about 12 percent of New Jersey’s county jail population remained in custody because they couldn’t post bail of $2,500 or less. More than two-thirds of these indigent defendants were members of racial and cultural minority groups. Meanwhile, under the old law, defendants with assets could post bail and be released even if they posed a serious risk of flight or danger to the public. Under Criminal Justice Reform, judges will assess the level of risk each defendant presents and impose conditions of release. Judges will use an objective risk-assessment tool that has been tested and validated with data from thousands of actual New Jersey cases. Judges will consider factors such as the defendant’s age at the time of arrest, pending charges, prior convictions and whether any of those involved violence, prior failures to appear, and prior jail sentences. With that information, each defendant will be classified as low, moderate, or high risk and could be released on conditions without having to post monetary bail. Those determined to be dangerous would be held without bail pending trial. The court will make a pretrial release decision at a centralized first appearance that will occur within 48 hours of a defendant’s arrest and commitment to the county jail unless a prosecutor moves for detention. If no motion was filed, the court must make a release decision within 48 hours. If the motion was filed, the judge must make a decision on whether to release or detain the defendant pending trial at a detention hearing.