Topic Category: Public Safety

Legislation Undermining the Criminal Justice Reform Act Would Harm Communities of Color

Posted on by Marleina Ubel

Good morning, Chairwoman Greenstein and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

I’m Marleina Ubel from New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP), a nonpartisan think tank focused on advancing economic, social, and racial justice for New Jersey residents.

S513 has an admirable goal of reducing gun violence. But its broad scope undermines core features of New Jersey’s gold-standard bail reform law and there is no evidence it will actually reduce gun violence.

The proposed bill essentially reverses the substantial progress of the Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA). This is because the Graves Act originally encompassed only firearms used as part of serious violent offenses. But since 2008, the Graves Act has encompassed a wide range of offenses. This bill would put mere unlawful possession of a handgun or rifle on par with murder or other crimes eligible for life imprisonment. These two acts do not present nearly the same threat or harm.

And these defendants would be on even worse footing than before the CJRA was enacted. Prior to the CJRA, they could have bailed themselves out through money bail. But under the proposed legislation, these residents would have no recourse to free themselves. Accused of nonviolent and mere possession offenses, many will have to languish in dangerous county lock-ups with no way to prove otherwise to a court until their trial.

The existing law already allows for courts to effectively evaluate whether Graves-Act-eligible offenses are serious enough to warrant pretrial detention, in consideration of all the current factors.

A recent report from the Judiciary on the Graves Act[i] shows that the existing system properly evaluates a defendant’s risk to the community:

  • Prosecutors only filed detention motions in 79.4 percent of matters where the defendant was charged with Graves offenses. This means they considered more than 1 in 5 Graves offenses as unserious enough to warrant filing for detention.
  • Judges already detain defendants charged with Graves offenses at more than twice the rate of other defendants.
  • Only 11 percent of the over 1,000 defendants released pretrial for Graves offenses were rearrested for a serious or weapons-related offense.

 

The track record of the CJRA is clear: fewer residents are detained in county lock-up, without sacrificing public safety. Adding all Graves offenses to presumptive detention will be replacing a policy scalpel with a sledgehammer aimed at communities of color.

What we learned from the 90s, is that ratcheting up detention just hurts racial and ethnic groups that are already disproportionately hurt by the criminal justice system. If the bill passes in its current form, the exact evils of the cash bail system will return – over incarceration of Black and Hispanic/Latinx residents who have not yet been convicted of a crime, in exchange for little to no public safety benefit: Of Graves Act defendants, over 75 percent were Black while approximately 20 percent were white. By comparison of non-Graves offenses, only 50 percent were Black and 40 percent white.

NJPP opposes S513 in its entirety, but at the very least, amendments should be made to remove the nonviolent and possessory offenses.

Thank you.

End Notes

[i] Source: New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts Graves Act Analysis, March 4, 2022: https://www.njcourts.gov/courts/assets/criminal/graves03042022.pdf?c=w6T.

Police in New Jersey Earn More Than Twice as Much as Social Service Workers

Posted on by Marleina Ubel

Building strong, equitable, and safe communities should be among the highest priorities for states and municipalities. Yet, traditional safety models that rely on police do not address the root causes of crime, often harm communities, and come at a high cost, especially when compared to investments in social services. According to new data from NJ.com’s The Pay Check database on law enforcement salaries, police officers in New Jersey make more than double that of the average community or social service employee, despite growing evidence that community-based services better address root causes of crime and promote safety for all residents.

The Pay Check database provides unprecedented access to local and state police salaries in New Jersey — including overtime and off-duty pay — and shows that police officers receive exceptional compensation when compared to other professions crucial to public safety, such as school counselors or social workers. 

Police Salaries In New Jersey

New Jersey is one of the most lucrative states to be a police officer, with the second-highest base salary for law enforcement officers in the country, behind California.[i] When added to benefits and pensions, the salaries of New Jersey police officers often top six figures.[ii] As detailed in the chart below, the average salary for other community and social service occupations is much lower.[iii]

The community and social service occupations category includes social workers, mental health and substance abuse counselors, community health workers, and clergy — all occupations that contribute to broader public safety.[iv]

There are also twice as many police and correctional officers as substance abuse, behavioral, and mental health counselors combined.[v] The chart below outlines just how few mental health professionals there are compared to law enforcement.[vi]

To truly promote public safety, New Jersey must reassess how investments in that area are made, recognizing that public safety depends on more than police officers. Creating stronger communities requires investments in community and social services that use health-centered approaches to prevent, reduce, and safely intervene in harmful behavior, while limiting the damage caused by policing and incarceration. Yet, as detailed in the NJPP report, To Protect and Serve: Investing in Public Safety Beyond Policing, budgets, which provide the resources on which communities depend, rarely support these services to the level of law enforcement officers.

Equity and safety require that the compensation disparities detailed above should be closed so all of the people who call this state home feel safe and valued.

End Notes

[i] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020). Occupational Employment and Wages, Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm#st

[ii] Ford, Chang, Cao, & Philip (2021). How the Police Bank Millions Through Their Union Contracts. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/new-jersey-police-contracts

[iii] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (May, 2020) State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, New Jersey. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nj.htm; The Pay Check. https://projects.nj.com/paycheck/

[iv] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May, 2020). Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: New Jersey https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nj.htm

[v] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May, 2020). Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: New Jersey https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nj.htm

[vi] Note: the chart does not include transit police, bailiffs, and other specialized officers.

Loosening Police Training Requirements is Not Only Tone Deaf, But Dangerous

Posted on by Marleina Ubel

The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee today voted out legislation to loosen training requirements for new police officers. S4208 would allow municipal and county police departments to establish a nine-month probationary period for new officers, during which they could assume police duties without completing basic training. In response to this legislation advancing, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) released the following statement.

Marleina Ubel, Policy Analyst, NJPP:

“Amid public demands for increased accountability in law enforcement, the committee’s action is not only tone deaf, but dangerous.

“We need more training for police, not less, given the pervasiveness of police brutality and that communities of color bear the brunt of it. In New Jersey, a Black person is 224 times more likely to experience police brutality than a white person. To end unnecessary use of force by police and create safer communities for everyone, legislators should pass bills that increase transparency, oversight, and accountability in policing — not bills weakening requirements that serve the public interest.”

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New Jersey Can Use American Rescue Plan Funds to Invest in Non-Police Approaches to Public Safety

Posted on by Marleina Ubel

New Jersey — and other states — can invest in proven, community-based approaches to public safety through the American Rescue Plan (ARP), according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. By shifting away from law enforcement-based approaches to issues of mental health, substance abuse, school safety, and traffic safety, states can achieve better outcomes for everyone.

Decades of punitive policy making have made the United States one of the most incarcerated countries in the world, while ballooning police and corrections spending, even amid declines in violent and property crime rates.

The ARP is an unprecedented opportunity to invest in programs that will increase public health and safety while decreasing the need for police intervention. Signed into law in March 2021, the $1.9 trillion package offers flexibility for state and local governments to fund a wide range of programs that can be catered to the unique needs of communities.

States can address racial and other inequities in the criminal legal system, reducing unnecessary police stops that too often result in arrests and incarceration, and reducing acts of police violence, which disproportionately harm people of color and communities that have been pushed behind by decades of exclusionary policies.

New Jersey, specifically, has some of the worst Black-white disparities in police use of force and incarceration in the country. The state also prioritizes investments in law enforcement, which outpace investments in health and human services, as outlined in the NJPP report released earlier this year, To Protect and Serve: Investing In Public Safety Beyond Policing.

We can create safer communities, lower police violence, and reduce arrests, incarceration, and related costs by investing ARP funds in:

  • Mental health: The ARP’s additional Medicaid resources and $3 billion in funding for mental health and substance use disorders can help states prevent related arrests and incarceration. Many communities send police instead of health care professionals to respond to mental health crises or drug-related cases, which disproportionately harm people of color. Nationwide, approximately 10 percent of police contacts involve individuals with mental health needs, and 23 percent of people killed by police have a mental health need.
  • Education: School districts and state education departments can use the ARP’s $122 billion in mostly flexible education funds to replace school police with alternative interventions for students. Positive behavioral supports, trauma-informed training for staff, and restorative justice can reduce involvement in the criminal legal system, especially for students of color.
  • Housing: States can use the ARP’s targeted housing funds to prevent evictions, increase affordable housing, and reduce homelessness — all of which contribute to lower crime and stronger communities.
  • Traffic safety: State and local governments can use ARP funds to create new non-police units that focus on traffic safety instead of traffic enforcement, reducing the most common police interaction with the public, which disproportionately targets people of color.
  • Other interventions: States and localities can use federal funding to invest in violence interrupters and crisis response teams, which respond to crises with mental health professionals rather than armed police officers. Other interventions also include out-of-school programs, nutrition assistance, job training, and subsidized jobs. All of these investments have been shown to reduce crime.

 

For more information, read the new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Using Federal Relief Funds to Invest in Non-Police Approaches to Public Safety.

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