New Jersey can lead the nation by making its public defense system a driver of community safety, equity, and economic stability. The key is to address the root causes that pull people into the legal system. And it would take only a modest investment with generous returns. Expanding the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender’s (NJ OPD) holistic defense program across all 21 counties, and writing it into law, would save New Jersey taxpayers at least $12.7 million a year in the long term, based on estimates from NJ OPD and the Office of Legislative Services.[1]
Moving from “Case-Centered” to “Person-Centered”
Holistic defense is a team-based public defense model that pairs defense attorneys with licensed social workers, peer system navigators (individuals with lived experience who can act as guides), and community-based service providers.[2] Traditional public defense focuses only on the outcome in court. It leaves the crises in a client’s life unaddressed. Holistic defense looks at the whole person. Holistic defense teams build tailored support plans that connect people to essential resources such as stable housing, mental health care, addiction treatment, and job training.[3]
Public defenders are attorneys who represent people who cannot afford a lawyer. They hold a unique position to address root causes of legal system involvement. Public defenders represent about 90 percent of defendants in New Jersey.[4] That means most people facing charges in the state have limited resources. Defense teams are also bound by attorney-client privilege, so they meet clients at a moment of crisis in a setting built on trust.
New Jersey has already shown this approach works. NJ OPD ran recent pilot programs in Atlantic, Monmouth, and Hudson counties with local community organizations. Pilot sites achieved a 442 percent increase in overall connections to social services, and 80 percent of clients who needed work were successfully connected to workforce or job-training programs.[5] In a random sample of just 90 cases, or 10 percent of the pilot, NJ OPD estimates the program avoided $1.4 million in incarceration costs.[6]
Better Individual Outcomes = Safer, Stronger, and More Equitable Communities
Holistic defense tackles the interconnected cycles of poverty, systemic inequity, and legal system involvement. Incarceration and poverty reinforce one another. The legal system disproportionately targets people with low incomes, and detention deepens economic hardship for families.[7] This means reducing incarceration, sentence length, and repeat arrests also ripple outward, contributing to economic stability, stronger families, and racial equity.[8]
The safest communities are not those with the most police or the largest prisons. Communities thrive when people have access to quality education, safe housing, health care, and green spaces.[9] This is also true for each person. People with more resources are less likely to reoffend. In Philadelphia, the public defender’s office added bail advocates to its defense teams to help attorneys argue for a client’s release before trial. Clients with bail advocates were 64 percent less likely to violate the terms of their release and 26 percent less likely to be rearrested.[10] An estimated 65,000 children in New Jersey have had an incarcerated parent. Keeping people out of jail with programs like this helps prevent family separation and the harms that follow.[11]
The Philadelphia bail advocates also reduced racial inequities in pretrial detention.[12] This matters in New Jersey, where pretrial detention disproportionately harms Black New Jerseyans. In 2024, Black New Jerseyans made up 56 percent of people in pretrial detention but only 15 percent of the state’s population.[13] This is vital in a state where systemic racism has ravaged communities and where the Black-white disparity in incarceration is the highest in the country.[14]
Holistic Defense is Fiscally Responsible
Incarceration is expensive. And locking people up without addressing their underlying needs creates a costly revolving door for state and county budgets. It should come as no surprise, then, that reducing the number of people detained or under state supervision saves money. Not to mention, when a person can stay in their community and work, they can contribute economically.[15]
It costs about $78,000 a year to hold one person in a New Jersey state prison and approximately $83,000 per year to hold one individual in a county jail, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections and the Administrative Office of the Courts.[16] The Office of Legislative Services estimates that expanding holistic defense statewide would cost $9.8 million in the first year. NJ OPD estimates the program would avoid $22.5 million a year in incarceration costs by preventing unnecessary jail and prison time before and after trial. That would leave the state at least $12.7 million ahead each year.[17]
Holistic defense has saved money in other places too:[18]
- Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy: Estimated $68.6 million in potential first-year state savings by assigning licensed social workers and alternative sentencing workers to public defender teams.[19]
- The Bronx Defenders: Saved New York taxpayers an estimated $165 million by cutting clients’ time behind bars, according to a 10-year study.[20]
- Santa Barbara County: Integrating social work and bail advocacy into defense teams generated $250,000 in annual taxpayer savings.[21]
People-Centered Policy is Good Governance
Lasting public safety requires moving beyond punitive cycles and investing in structural solutions that help people build stable lives. Not every social crisis requires a punitive legal response. Often, connecting people to treatment, housing, and job training is the most effective way to ensure safety for everyone. Holistic defense is a crucial step in this direction, and state lawmakers should fully fund the program in all 21 New Jersey counties. With dedicated, sustainable funding for social workers, peer navigators, and community-based partnerships, New Jersey will become a national leader in criminal legal reform, building safer, stronger, and more equitable communities statewide.
End Notes
[1] New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. Fiscal note for A4897/S4298. Aug. 2026.
[2] New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. Holistic representation. State of New Jersey. Accessed Oct. 2026.
[3] New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. Holistic representation. State of New Jersey. Accessed Oct. 2026.
[4] New Jersey Criminal Sentencing & Disposition Commission. March 2023 Report. Mar. 2023. Pg. 18.
[5] New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. Holistic representation. State of New Jersey. Accessed Oct. 2026.
[6] New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. Data on file with the author.
[7] deVuono-powell, S. et al. Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families. Ella Baker Center. Sep. 2015. Pg. 9.
[8] Heaton, P. Enhanced Public Defense Improves Pretrial Outcomes and Reduces Racial Disparities, Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 96: Iss. 3, Article 2. 2021. Pg. 2.
[9] Ubel, M. To Protect and Serve: Investing in Public Safety Beyond Policing. New Jersey Policy Perspective. 2021.
[10] Heaton, P. Enhanced Public Defense Improves Pretrial Outcomes and Reduces Racial Disparities, Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 96: Iss. 3, Article 2. 2021. Pg. 2.
[11] Annie E. Casey Foundation. A Shared Sentence: The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids, Families and Communities. 2016. Pg 7.
[12] Heaton, P. Enhanced Public Defense Improves Pretrial Outcomes and Reduces Racial Disparities, Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 96: Iss. 3, Article 2. 2021. Pg. 2.
[13] New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts. Report to the Governor and Legislature on Criminal Justice Reform 2022-2024. Pg. 31.
[14] Nellis, A. The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons. The Sentencing Project. Oct. 2021. Pg. 10.
[15] Butkovitz, A. Economic impacts of cash bail on the City of Philadelphia: An analysis of the direct and indirect impacts of cash bail. City of Philadelphia, Office of the Controller. Oct. 2017. Pg. 6.
[16] New Jersey Department of Corrections. Response to FY27 budget hearing questions. 2026. Pg. 8; New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. Fiscal note for S1280. Aug. 2026.
[17] New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. Fiscal note for A4897/S4298. Aug. 2026. Note that the Office of Legislative Services predicts an initial investment of $9.8 million.
[18] Anderson, J., Buenaventura, M. and Heaton, P. The Effects of Holistic Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes. Nov. 2018. Pg. 2.; Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. Annual Report: Fiscal Year 2024. 2024. Pg. 7.; Garcia, B. Defending Santa Barbara’s Most Vulnerable. Santa Barbara Independent. Jul. 2019.
[19] Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. Annual Report: Fiscal Year 2024. 2024. Pg. 7.
[20] Anderson, J., Buenaventura, M. and Heaton, P. The Effects of Holistic Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes. Nov. 2018. Pg. 2
[21] Garcia, B. Defending Santa Barbara’s Most Vulnerable, Santa Barbara Independent. Jul. 2019.
