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Judiciary defends pretrial assessment system; committee hears staffing and detention data
Summary
Officials told legislators that New Jersey’s public safety assessment (PSA) framework gives judges a scored recommendation but that judges retain discretion; the committee heard staffing levels for pretrial services and recent statistics on motions and releases.
Acting administrative director Michael Blee and assignment judges told the Assembly Budget Committee that New Jersey’s pretrial framework relies on a public safety assessment tool but that judges make the final release or detention decisions.
Blee described the PSA as “an electronic system based upon [nine] factors” that produces two scores — one measuring risk of dangerousness and one measuring risk of failure to appear — and said the judiciary provides a decision‑making framework that judges may follow or deviate from with reasons placed on the record. “New Jersey, the judges ultimately make the decision,” Blee said.
Committee members pressed for figures on pretrial staffing and caseload. Blee said the judiciary’s pretrial target staffing across vicinages is 430 frontline staff plus 15 central office employees (445 total); the fully staffed model would be closer to 574, and current funding supports the program at about 77 percent of that target. He said expanded pretrial monitoring after the pandemic and lower indictment rates have extended pretrial caseloads.
Blee also supplied recent pretrial statistics: judicial officers issued complaint warrants for 37,178 eligible defendants with 36,090 having release or detention decisions in the referenced year; 57.2 percent of defendants were released at first appearance without a prosecutor’s motion; prosecutors filed 15,925 motions for pretrial detention and 62.1 percent of those motions were granted; 28,258 defendants were released on recognizance or monitoring; 4,095 motions to revoke release were filed and 62.9 percent were granted.
The committee discussed statutory changes that affect pretrial recommendations, including legislative adjustments for Graves Act offenses and certain car theft statutes that alter presumptions about detention. Blee stressed the branches’ need to collaborate when statutes change and emphasized training and ongoing review of PSA performance and appellate outcomes.
Ending: Committee members requested more granular data about PSA overrides, staff counts, and costs to inform budget decisions and potential legislative responses.
