ASSEMBLY, No. 2518

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

211th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED MARCH 11, 2004

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman MARY T. PREVITE

District 6 (Camden)

Assemblyman FRANCIS J. BLEE

District 2 (Atlantic)

Assemblyman PETER J. BARNES, JR.

District 18 (Middlesex)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblymen Conover, Johnson and Mayer

SYNOPSIS

    Creates "Task Force to Improve the Treatment of Offenders with Mental Illness."

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

    As introduced.

(Sponsorship Updated As Of: 5/18/2004)

An Act creating a "Task Force to Improve the Treatment of Offenders with Mental Illness."

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The Legislature finds and declares:

    Persons with mental illness frequently are caught up in a cycle of multiple arrests, prosecutions and incarceration for crimes which are directly related to the symptoms of their mental illness, for which they may have received inadequate or no treatment.

    The lack of alternatives to incarceration such as residential and community treatment programs results in jails and prisons serving as de facto psychiatric hospitals for persons suffering from mental illness. Indeed, approximately 13 percent of offenders incarcerated to serve State prison terms in New Jersey have received a serious mental health diagnosis which requires treatment by mental health professionals.

    The growing number of inmates with mental illness and the lack of appropriate resources in some jails and prisons to screen and treat these individuals, erodes staff morale, jeopardizes the safety of the staff and other inmates, exacerbates jail and prison overcrowding and inflates the cost of operating corrections systems.

    Furthermore, community resources to provide mental health treatment for offenders upon release from incarceration are inadequate and many of the existing programs lack the expertise to treat the antisocial personality disorders that afflict many mentally ill offenders who commit crimes.

    Integration of the mental health and criminal justice systems would provide prompt, appropriate treatment and interventions to break the cycle of arrest, prosecution and incarceration and successfully reduce the number of individuals with mental illnesses entering, residing in and reentering the criminal justice system.

    Therefore, a study should be conducted to determine the most effective means of integrating those systems to facilitate the transfer or diversion of low-risk, mentally ill offenders to community settings and to provide adequate and effective treatment for the mentally ill who are incarcerated, with the ultimate goals of enhancing reintegration into the community and reducing the recidivism rate of mentally ill offenders.

    2. a. There is hereby created a Task Force to be known as the "Task Force to Improve the Treatment of Offenders with Mental Illness." The Task Force shall consist of 14 members as follows: two members of the Senate to be appointed by the President thereof, who shall not be of the same political party; two members of the General Assembly to be appointed by the Speaker thereof, who shall not be of the same political party; the Attorney General or his designee; the Commissioner of the Corrections or his designee; the Commissioner of Human Services or his designee; the Public Defender or his designee; the Administrative Director of the Courts or his designee; the President of the New Jersey County Prosecutors Association or a representative; one public member appointed by the Senate President; one public member appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly; and the two public members appointed by the Governor, no more than one of whom shall be of the same political party. The public members shall serve during the existence of the task force. In selecting the public members, the Senate President, the Speaker of the General Assembly and the Governor should seek to include persons who have experience, training, or some academic background in mental illness advocacy, prisoner reentry, corrections, judicial administration or criminal law. The members appointed from a class of holders of public office shall remain members until the expiration of the task force or until they cease to be members of the class from which they were appointed, whichever occurs first. Any vacancy in the membership of the task force shall be filled by appointment in the same manner as the original appointment was made.

    b. The task force shall organize within 45 days after the appointment of its members. The Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research of Rutgers University shall convene and host the meetings of the task force. The members shall elect a chair and a vice-chair, and the chair may appoint a secretary, who need not be a member of the task force.

    c. The members of the task force shall serve without compensation, but shall be eligible for reimbursement for necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the task force for its purposes.

    d. The task force shall be entitled to accept the assistance and services of such employees of any State, county, or municipal department, board, bureau, commission, or agency as may be made available to it and to employ such legal, stenographic, technical, and clerical assistance and incur such expenses as may be necessary in order to perform its duties within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to it for its purposes.

    3. a. It shall be the duty of the task force to make recommendations as to the most efficient and effective means of addressing the issues presented by non-violent offenders with mental illness who have committed non-indictable offenses, including screening, diversion from the criminal justice system, and appropriate treatment. The task force also shall make recommendations for improving the services available to offenders with mental illness to enhance their reentry into society upon their release from incarceration.

    b. In order to assist the task force in its findings and recommendations, the Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research of Rutgers University shall conduct a cost-benefit analysis of diverting low-risk, mentally ill offenders from prisons and jails to community settings. The center shall submit its findings to the task force. While the task force is instructed to give all due consideration to the center's findings, the task force shall not be bound by those findings in formulating its recommendations.

    4. Within one year after its organization the task force shall prepare and submit a report containing its recommendations to the following or their successors: the Governor; the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee; the Chair of the Senate Law, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs Committee; the Chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee; the Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee; the Chair of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee; the Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee; and the Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing, established pursuant to P.L.2003, c.265.

    5. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire upon the submission by the Task Force of its final report to the following or their successors: the Governor; the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee; the Chair of the Senate Law, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs Committee; the Chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee; the Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee; the Chair of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee; the Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee; and the Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing, established pursuant to P.L.2003, c.265.

STATEMENT

    This bill would create the "Task Force to Improve the Treatment of Offenders with Mental Illness." The 14-member task force is charged with making recommendations to the Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing, established pursuant to P.L.2003, c.265, regarding the most efficient and effective means of addressing the issues presented by non-violent offenders with mental illness who have committed non-indictable offenses. The task force also is required to make recommendations for improving the services available to offenders with mental illness to enhance their reentry into society upon their release from incarceration.

    In order to assist the task force in its findings and recommendations, the Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research of Rutgers University would conduct a cost-benefit analysis of diverting low-risk, mentally ill offenders from prisons and jails. The task force's is instructed to give all due consideration to the center's analysis; however, the task force is not bound by that analysis.

    Members of the task force include two members of the Senate and the General Assembly, the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Corrections, the Commissioner of Human Services, the Public Defender, the Administrative Director of the Courts, the President of the New Jersey County Prosecutors Association, and four public members, one appointed by the Senate, one by the General Assembly and two by the Governor.

    The task force is to organize within 45 days after the appointment of its members. The task force is required to prepare and submit a final report of its findings and recommendations within one year after the organization of the task force. The report is to be submitted to the Governor and the chairs of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, Law, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs Committee and Budget and Appropriations Committee and the chairs of the Assembly's Judiciary Committee, Law and Public Safety Committee and Appropriations Committee and the Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing, established pursuant to P.L.2003, c.265. The task force is to expire upon submission of the final report.