The reinstatement of the COVID-19 public health emergency reactivated a number of laws adopted in response to the pandemic, including one granting inmates early release from state prison.
State officials have tweaked New Jersey’s census results for the purposes of redrawing political maps for the next decade, reallocating 16,198 prisoners out of the towns where they’re jailed back to the addresses where they used to reside.
A new state law that reallocates inmates in NJ back to their hometowns for redistricting purposes could remove more than 38,000 people from the population counts of 94 municipalities.
New Jersey plans to permanently close the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, in the wake of the violent cell extractions on Jan. 11 that were the latest and perhaps last in a series of scandals at the state’s only women’s prison.
Lawmakers bemoaned growing overtime costs in the state’s prisons at a Monday budget hearing, which are approaching $1 million even if costs related to the COVID-19 response are excluded.