Lawmakers Aim To Provide Services To Defendants Before Trial

By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor

February 10, 2023

Lawmakers announced a proposal Thursday that would offer mental health, addiction treatment, and legal services to people awaiting criminal trials.

The program would allow individuals to request — or a judge to order — they undergo a screening conducted by a pretrial service provider to determine whether they have a substance use disorder; mental, behavioral, or medical health issues; and the ability to hold a job or manage their own personal affairs.

Those who win pretrial release after a screening are required to follow a treatment plan developed by the New Jersey Reentry Corp., a nonprofit headed by former Gov. Jim McGreevey that was selected as the service provider for the pilot program. McGreevey’s group would connect individuals with needed resources that can also include job training and housing aid.

“This state values giving opportunities to people who are released from prison, and what the preentry program that we’re proposing does is it starts that process earlier,” said Larry Lustberg, a member of the New Jersey Reentry Corp. board. “It starts that process at the moment somebody becomes involved in the criminal justice system, and it provides them with the services to succeed from the very beginning when they’re released on bail.”

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Brian Stack (D-Hudson) and Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson), would launch a one-year pilot program in Union and Monmouth counties with the New Jersey Reentry Corp. acting as the service provider. Both men chair the Legislature’s two judiciary committees.

The proposal is an extension of New Jersey bail reforms that deemphasized cash bail and afforded judges greater discretion over pretrial detention. Those reforms, active since 2017, have slashed the state’s jail population, reducing the number of individuals held before trial for low-level offenses.

At present, the risk assessments conducted as part of pretrial release hearings do not include substance abuse or mental health screenings, nor do they delve into a person’s employment status or community ties.

The proposal’s supporters hope pretrial services would help reduce the chance a person released while awaiting trial would reoffend or fail to appear once their trial date arrives.

“If we’re able to get to these folks sooner, perhaps before they go in, a lot of these problems that we deal with in the backend when they get out and can often lead to recidivism, we can get them solved sooner,” said Damon Watson, legal services project manager at the New Jersey Reentry Corp.

Staff from the reentry group would supervise individuals released before trial in order to better provide services and ensure individuals are complying with the conditions of their release.

“This is providing resources to individuals who are without,” said McGreevey. “If, God forbid, our children were grappling with addiction, grappling with homelessness, lack of food, lack of access to medical needs, we would be able to provide those resources.”

Similar pretrial programs exist at the federal level and in Virginia and Washington, D.C., where risk assessments include examinations of individuals’ past drug use and employment.

The bill would forbid the state from appropriating additional money for the pilot program. The New Jersey Reentry Corp. would pay for the program from its operating budget, which is funded mostly by annual grants awarded by the state government. The corporation received a $10.4 million grant for one-stop reentry services in the fiscal year that ends July 1.

It’s unclear how much the pilot program would cost, but McGreevey said the organization could administer the pilot using existing resources.

Mukherji said he hopes to have the legislation passed through both chambers before the start of the new fiscal year, but added conversations about the bill’s path through the Legislature have yet to be held.

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