Issues 2019 – Criminal Justice Task Force Report

Criminal Justice Reform Task Force

This is the time of year that our Task Force sets its working agenda for the upcoming legislative session.  This year, the NJ Legislature will be actively in session for just two months at the end of this year, beginning November 5, 2019.  Bills that do not pass will die and need to be reintroduced in 2020, when a new legislature is sworn in and new 2-year session convenes. .  Therefore, how we focus our efforts in the very short term of the next three months, and how we focus in 2020 may be quite different. 

As of the end of legislative activity in the early summer, these are the bills still pending from those we were advocating for:

  • “Earn Your Way Out” Parole reform A1986 – One of our two priorities for lame-duck session. Stalled in Assembly — passed Senate in 2018. Needs Assembly Judiciary vote and then floor vote to pass. Sponsors Sumter and Holley plan to press for passage before end of year. 
  • Voting restoration S2100/A3456– Second of our priorities for lame-duck session. —  In Assembly and Senate committees. We knew by last summer that hesitancy on the part of leadership to move these bills forward involved concern for how taking a position might impact those running for (re)election in November. We are positioning ourselves to work actively with NJISJ’s campaign, “1844 No More,” to get passage before end of the year. 
  • Dignity for Primary Caretakers Act – S2540 Passed in Assembly- could get to floor vote fairly quickly. CJR task force will act in supportive role with Reproductive Task Force, as they are part of larger coalition on this bill.
  • Parole services for those who max out- S2406/A1874  Did not get voted out of either Senate or Assembly committee for floor votes. Early estimations are that this would not get movement during lame-duck session. Assuming this is reintroduced, and we are able to identify second tier priorities for the year, this would be one we consider.
  • Visitation- A1025/S1808  Did not get voted out of either committee. Related to the regulatory change UUFA initiated with DOC, but this bill deals with a variety of issues around visitation, including cost of video-teleconferencing. 
  • Three other important activities remain on a burner!
  1. UUFA-initiated amendment of DOC rules on visitation became official on October 7th. We are seeking to develop some capacity to engage with community groups to ensure proper implementation of this rule change.
  2. UUFA and the CJR task force, through involvement by member Tricia Idobro, remain actively engaged with CAIC in the regulatory phase for implementation of the Isolated Confinement Restriction law.
  3. Engagement with the Legal Advocacy Project to develop a concept for our own legislative or regulatory initiative.  

At the October TF conference call the following preliminary action plan was discussed, and this will be formalized during the break-out session today:

  • Immediate Priorities for lame-duck session: Voting Rights and Earn Your Way Out bills

Results of the lame-duck session will determine how the TF moves forward for the first year of the upcoming 2-year legislative session.  Possibilities include:

    • One or both bills do not pass:  If either one or both of the Voting and Parole bill do NOT pass, they will remain a priority(ies) for the remainder of the year.
    • One or both of the above bills pass:  Our focus will shift to prioritizing advocacy/education/mobilizing on one or two of the remaining: services for those maxing out, visitation, primary caretaker’s bill with Reproductive Justice if this did not pass.
  • Connect with one or more grass roots organizations to develop ways that we can monitor how the Visitation rule-changes are implemented at state and county facilities, and to be aware of the timeline.
  • Have internal discussions as task force and with Executive Director and LAP Director, to explore possible legislative or regulatory initiatives.

 We hope to see some of you at the Break Out session today where these bills and the preliminary action plan will be discussed.  If you cannot attend because another Task Force has caught your attention, that’s just fine!  Just stay in touch with us:  Susan MacDonnell, susmacdonn@gmail.com and Anne Houle, annehoule0102@gmail.com.