ASSEMBLY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

ASSEMBLY, No. 1076

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED:  JUNE 15, 2020

 

      The Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 1076.

      This bill requires the Attorney General to establish a program to collect, record, and analyze prosecutorial and criminal justice data, which includes race, ethnicity, gender, and age-related information, and issue annual reports. 

      Under the bill, the Attorney General, in consultation with the Division of State Police, county prosecutors offices, Administrative Office of the Courts, and Department of Corrections, is required to establish a program to collect, record, and analyze data regarding defendants in this State who are age 18 or older at the time of the commission of an alleged offense.  The data is to be collected from the time a defendant enters the State’s criminal justice system, by arrest, charge, or other action, through the final disposition of the defendant’s case.  The data required includes race, ethnicity, gender, and age of the defendant.  Specifically, the data is to include, but not be limited to: (1) warrants, arrests, charges, filing of criminal complaints, and indictments; (2) dismissed or downgraded charges; (3) cases which proceed to trial, and the disposition of cases, including convictions and guilty pleas; (4) admission to diversionary programs, including data on program applications, and any prosecutorial consent or denial for a defendant’s entry into diversionary programs; (5) contact between a prosecutorial authority and a victim, including data concerning cases involving victims; (6) plea agreement negotiations including data concerning plea offers extended and accepted or rejected by the defendant, plea agreements entered or rejected by the court, and whether the plea agreements involved probation or incarceration; (7) court fees and fines, and (8) restitution amounts ordered, including any amount collected by the court and paid to a victim.

      The Attorney General is required to prepare and publish on its Internet website annual reports summarizing the data collected, recorded, and analyzed under the bill, and is to issue annual reports to the Governor and the Legislature.  The reports published under the bill are not to disclose any confidential or personal identifying information related to a defendant or victim.

     This bill was pre-filed for introduction in the 2020-2021 session pending technical review.  As reported, the bill includes the changes required by technical review, which has been performed.