While American criminal justice systems utilize similar approaches and techniques across the nation, a closer look reveals stark differences in application, state to state. This article briefly summarizes crime, justice, reform, what works, and what could be improved in New Jersey’s criminal justice system.

When analyzing New Jersey’s criminal justice system, it’s important to get answers to these questions:

• Does New Jersey provide alternatives to incarceration?
• How many people are in jail or prison in New Jersey?
• What are the biggest prisons in New Jersey?
• What is New Jersey’s violent crime rate?
• What is New Jersey’s recidivism rate?

According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, New Jersey has the 46th highest incarceration rate in the country, ahead of Minnesota but behind Vermont. New Jersey incarcerates 145 people for every 100,000 living in the state, much lower than the national rate of 358 per 100,000. Only five states (Minnesota, Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts) incarcerate fewer people per capita than New Jersey.¹

How are people incarcerated in New Jersey? According to the National Institute of Corrections, New Jersey operates 19 jails in 21 counties. The jail population in 2019 was 10,470. New Jersey also manages nine state prisons that hold about 18,613 prisoners. In 2019, New Jersey’s community corrections population included 127,804 under probation and 15,194 under parole. The state’s Department of Corrections operates with an annual budget of $940 million.²

While the Department of Corrections is the seventh costliest item on New Jersey’s annual budget, the state only spends about $300 per New Jersey resident on its Department of Corrections. In contrast, K-12 education, the state’s costliest budget item, receives more than $3,000 per capita, ten times that of the Department of Corrections budget.³

One could extrapolate that part of the reason why New Jersey’s crime rates are so low (more on crime rates later) is because the state spends 10x on education than it does on incarceration.

While New Jersey does contract with private prisons, the state is moving away from this practice. In 2000, 2,498 New Jersey residents served time in private prisons. In 2019, that number dropped to 2,297. Currently, there are three privately owned prisons in New Jersey.⁴

The largest prison in New Jersey is the New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, located in Trenton and capable of housing 1,819 inmates.⁵

Photo by EQRoy/Shutterstock.com

Examining a state’s crime rates provides a clear indicator of the efficacy of that state’s criminal justice system. New Jersey experienced a drop in violent crime between 2020 and 2021, reporting just two instances of violent crime per 1,000 people living in the state by the end of 2021. Property crime also fell during that same period. The state recorded a 13% drop in property crime from 13.3 property crimes per 1,000 people in 2020 to 11.6 property crimes per 1,000 people in 2021.⁶

New Jersey has the lowest crime rate in the Mid-Atlantic region. Further, New Jersey recorded the fifth-lowest crime rate in the nation for violent crime and the fourth-lowest for property crime. New Jersey’s violent crime rate (2 crimes per 1,000) is far lower than the national average of 4 violent crimes for every 1,000 people. Also, the state’s property crime rate (11.6 per 1,000) is much lower than the national average of 19.6 property crimes per 1,000.

Statistical data on recidivism is an important metric by which to measure the efficacy of New Jersey’s criminal justice system. According to the state’s data, about 30% of released inmates will be re-incarcerated within three years. That suggests that while New Jersey has done an excellent job in keeping its crime rates low, the prison system is not providing effective rehabilitation for almost one in three individuals who commit crimes and go to prison.⁷

Judging from the relatively high recidivism rate in New Jersey, the state could benefit from improving, expanding, and updating its criminal rehabilitation programs. Currently, the criminal justice system in New Jersey offers some reform programs for inmates, but policymakers must expand them. To start, three types of programs would provide immense benefits to New Jersey inmates:

• Addiction rehabilitation programs for drug offenders
• Vocational training to help offenders learn valuable skills
• Life skills to help offenders cope with day-to-day challenges without resorting to crime

Another route that policymakers must consider is alternatives to incarceration in New Jersey. Such is especially true for New Jersey offenders serving sentences merely for nonviolent, personal-use drug possession. According to one study, 17% of New Jersey inmates serve drug-possession-only crimes, which is up 104% since 1986.⁸

New Jersey should be moving in the opposite direction by reducing the percentage of its nonviolent drug offenders serving prison time. But to do this, the state will have to offer alternatives to incarceration for people who commit crimes but who should not necessarily go to prison for those crimes. Such alternatives to incarceration can look like this:

• Pre-trial diversion
• A suspended sentence
• A work-release program
• Drug court for drug possession offenses
• Probation, parole, non-incarceration sentences
• Mandatory work programs to improve the community
• House arrest, electronic monitoring, or guided supervision

Some such programs are already operating in New Jersey, but policymakers should expand them. Looking to the future, the state should invest in educational programs in New Jersey and rehabilitation programs in New Jersey.

New Jersey has made excellent progress in reducing its property crime and violent crime. But the prison system is still producing “rehabilitated” individuals who go on to re-offend and re-incarcerate 30% of the time. Improving rehabilitation programs in prisons in New Jersey and offering evidence-based, accessible alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders and drug offenders should go a long way in helping lower recidivism while improving public safety.