NJ Is Bucking National Trend For Prison Population: Report

New Jersey is bucking a nationwide trend when it comes to its prison population, a study says.

The Sentencing Project, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for prison reform, released its latest report on Nov. 12. View the full study and learn about its methodology here.

According to researchers, a total of 39 states increased their prison populations in 2023 – but New Jersey wasn’t among them.

According to the study, New Jersey’s “peak year” for prison population took place in 1999. That number dropped by a whopping 62.9 percent between 1999 and 2023: the largest reduction in the nation.

The national trend towards putting more people in prison is happening despite “historic lows” in crime rates across the U.S., The Sentencing Project said.

Violent crime is down about 4.5 percent in the United States, the latest data from the FBI shows. Property crime dropped 8.1 percent last year. These numbers put the U.S. at its lowest property crime rates and lowest violent crime rates since at least 1969, according to the Center for American Progress.

New Jersey also saw a decrease in crime last year, according to FBI statistics.

New Jersey saw 20,684 violent crimes with a population of 9,500,851 residents in 2024 – a rate of 217.7 per 100,000 people. That’s down from 225.3 per 100,000 people in 2023. The state’s violent crime totals were well below the national rate, which came to 359.1 per 100,000 people.

The state has also seen a long-term drop in violent crime over the past decades – especially from levels seen in the 1980s and 1990s, FBI data shows.

New Jersey isn’t the only state to experience a simultaneous drop in crime and prison population, according to The Sentencing Project. From 1999 to 2023, New York cut its prison population by over 50 percent. During that same period, violent crime dropped by 34 percent – outpacing the national decline of 28 percent.

• Read More: Is Crime Up Or Down In New Jersey? Here’s What FBI Data Says
• Read More: New Shooting, Car Theft Data For NJ Shows 'Historic' Numbers
• Read More: 2 Largest Cities In NJ Are Seeing Big Drops In Murders, Shootings

MAKING ‘MODEST PROGRESS’

According to The Sentencing Project, the United States has made only “modest progress” toward ending mass incarceration amidst a historic crime drop.

“By year end 2024, violent crime rates reported to the police had plummeted to half of their 1990s levels, and property crime rates fell even further – just as crime rates have fallen in many other countries that did not increase imprisonment levels,” the nonprofit reported.

“But U.S. imprisonment levels continued to increase for nearly two decades while crime rates fell, and the modest level of decarceration since appears to be in jeopardy,” advocates said.

One factor behind the new trend? A “dramatic growth” in prison sentences – including life imprisonment, the report says.

“One in six people in U.S. prisons is serving a life sentence (16% of the prison population),” the report said. “The reluctance to scale back extreme sentences is at odds with evidence that long sentences incapacitate older people who pose little public safety threat, produce limited deterrent effects, and detract from more effective investments in public safety.”

• See Related: 1 In 10 New Jersey Inmates Will Likely Die In Jail, Report Says
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Despite New Jersey’s long-term prison reductions, other reports have suggested that its prison population has been creeping back up after a decade of decline.

The state’s number of incarcerated people grew by 1.2 percent between 2021 and 2022. There were 12,506 men and women in custody at a state or federal correctional facility in New Jersey in 2021. That number increased to 12,657 in 2022, figures from the U.S. Department of Justice say.

• See Related: NJ Prison Population Is Creeping Up After A Decade Of Decline: Report
• See Related: 200+ NJ Convicts Granted Clemency, Pardons, By Governor Murphy

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