New Year Brings New Bail Rules For New Jersey

Rowdy New Year's Eve revelers who get arrested in New Jersey for minor crimes, such as public drunkenness, won't need bail money if they get arrested after midnight tonight.

That's because starting New Year's Day, New Jersey's new bail reform act takes effect, eliminating monetary bail in most cases and strengthening the ability of law enforcement to prevent dangerous criminals from bailing their way out of pretrial jail detention.

The bail reform act, signed into law in August 2014 by Gov. Chris Christie, "for the first time in state history will permit dangerous criminals charged with non-capital crimes to be held without bail after arrest," the state Attorney General's office said in news release.

The law includes "far-reaching criminal justice reforms (that) also mandate speedy trials and, in most cases, eliminate monetary bail, which has had a discriminatory impact on poorer defendants who have remained in jail on minor charges under the old system due to inability to pay even modest amounts of bail," the release said.

The intent of the law, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said, is to ensure dangerous criminals can't pay their way out of jail, while those accused of a minor, nonviolent, crime don't languish in jail simply because they cannot raise bail money.

In the past, the decision to jail a defendant before trial was "made without regard to the danger the defendant poses to the community, victims, or witnesses because under New Jersey case law a judge (was) prohibited from considering public safety in setting the amount of monetary bail," Porrino's office said in directive issued to law enforcement and posted on the state Attorney General's office website.

"New Jersey’s bail reform law puts safety first," Porrino said in October in issuing the directive.

The new system requires courts to assess the likelihood that a defendant will flee, commit new criminal activity, or obstruct justice by intimidating victims and other witnesses, Porrino's office said. It establishes standards and criteria to guide the way police and prosecutors exercise their discretion in deciding when to seek pretrial detention, the attorney general's office said.

It also "establishes procedural safeguards to ensure consistency" in the way defendants are treated across the state.

The other impact, Porrino's office said, is to speed up the criminal justice system. Authorities will have 48 hours to decide whether to charge someone with a crime that would keep them in jail until trial, and

“This new law gives prosecutors powerful new tools to detain and monitor dangerous criminals pending trial,” Elie Honig, director of the state's Division of Criminal Justice, said. “Our goal with this directive is to enable prosecutors to use those tools effectively and judiciously to protect the community, recognizing that defendants who are unlikely to flee or commit new crimes should not be jailed at taxpayer expense.”

The Asbury Park Press reported a 2013 study found that about 1,500 people, or 12 percent of the state’s jail population, were in custody because they couldn’t pay a bail of $2,500 or less.

Under the new law, those accused of violent crimes — murder, aggravated manslaughter, manslaughter, aggravated assault, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, carjacking, robbery, escape, or an attempt to commit any of those — would be held in jail while awaiting trial without exception.

Law enforcement also could seek to have someone held in jail if they are accused of violating a domestic violence restraining order, witness tampering, committing a crime while on release waiting for trial on criminal charges, or a host of other charges that include terrorism, vehicular homicide, kidnapping, aggravated arson, strict liability for a drug-induced death, and "causing or permitting a child to engage in a prohibited sexual act," among others.

Porrino's office said the process begins with a decision by police and prosecutors regarding whether to charge the person with a crime that falls under the "complaint-warrant" category — violent crimes including murder and sexual assault are in this category. Once a defendant is charged by complaint-warrant, they are taken to a county jail, where he or she will be held for up to 48 hours. Within 48 hours, the defendant will have a first appearance in court. At that time, if the state has filed a motion to detain, the judge will decide whether to detain the defendant or release the defendant, and what conditions should be imposed if the defendant is released.

"In all of those cases where the prosecutor is permitted to apply for preventive detention, the law’s presumption of pretrial release can be overcome only if the state can establish by clear and convincing evidence that no release conditions will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance in court, the protection of the safety of any other person or the community, or that the defendant will not attempt to obstruct the criminal justice process," Porrino's office said.

In cases where a defendant is detained before trial, the new law requires generally that the case be indicted within 90 days and brought to trial within 180 days of indictment, subject to provisions for extension, Porrino's office said.

"However, those speedy trial rules do not apply in cases without pretrial detention," Porrino's office said. "In cases where the defendant remains free, he or she may have little incentive to accept responsibility and plead guilty in a timely fashion." To address that, Porrino's office said prosecutors now will offer plea deals that grow tougher over time, to "encourage guilty offenders to plead guilty, thereby conserving law enforcement and judicial resources and facilitating potential cooperation in ongoing cases."

The Asbury Park Press report said the change is espected to cost Ocean County about $1.1 million more annually for staffing plus about $700,000 in unspecified capital improvements. But those costs are anticipated to be offset by a reduction in the cost of housing nonviolent defendants, Porrino's office said.

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