FISCAL NOTE TO


SENATE, No. 523


STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: AUGUST 6, 1996

 

 

      Senate Bill No. 523 of 1996 would require that guilty sex offenders found to be compulsive/repetitive be sentenced to a facility other than the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment (ADTC) until such time as the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and the Special Classification Review Board find the offender amenable to treatment. At such time, the offender would be required to return to court for the imposition of a sentence to the ADTC for specialized treatment or placed on probation with a requirement for outpatient psychological or psychiatric treatment.

      The Department of Corrections states that during calendar year 1994 a total of 144 offenders were admitted to ADTC. The department notes that if this bill is enacted, a similar number of inmates would be required to begin their sentences at other facilities until found amenable to treatment.

      The department states that this bill could significantly reduce overcrowding at ADTC within a year of its enactment. A continued decrease in the ADTC population would follow, which would stabilize at some unknown point. There may be some savings in operational costs related to shelter (food, clothing, medical); however, the cost of therapeutic services would remain the same as it would be desirable to decrease the ratios of psychological personnel to inmates for more effective therapy. The current rate of inmate participation is more than 90 percent.

      The department further states that while actual costs cannot be determined because it does not possess the data with which to estimate the proportion of the average offender's sentence to be served in a facility other than the ADTC, the following factors would have an impact on the cost:

     With the current overcrowding throughout the DOC and numerous inmates already awaiting placement in the county jails, additional beds would need to be constructed in the other facilities to accommodate the diversion of repetitive, compulsive sex offenders until they are found to be amenable to treatment. The decreased operating costs which the ADTC experienced would be shifted to these institutions.

     The department would be required to hire additional counselors and psychologists at existing facilities to determine the inmates' amenability to treatment at ADTC.

     Additional Special Classification Review Board staff would be necessary to monitor the treatment status of sex offenders housed at various facilities.

      The Office of Legislative Services concurs.

 

This fiscal note has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67.