FISCAL NOTE TO

SENATE, No. 1243

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: NOVEMBER 15, 1996

      Senate Bill No. 1243 of 1996 provides that juveniles who use guns to commit the following crimes will be subject to minimum mandatory terms of incarceration: murder, manslaughter, kidnaping, sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary and escape.

      Under this bill, a juvenile who unlawfully possess a firearm with intent to use it against another person or who uses or possesses a firearm in the course of committing an act which, if committed by an adult, would constitute a serious crime, would be sentenced to a term of incarceration or between one-third and one-half of the sentence imposed or three years, whichever is greater, or 18 months in the case of a fourth degree crime. The juvenile would not be eligible for parole during that term.

      The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) estimates that this bill would not directly affect costs. However, the AOC notes that the imposition of mandatory terms would increase its workload for court staff and increase the number of detention review hearings by judges. Information is not readily available to reliably estimate the increased costs, if any, as a result of the enactment of this bill.

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) concurs with this estimate. OLS observes that a fiscal note of a similar bill in a prior session indicated that the Department of Correction's (DOC) data base codes the inmates' most serious or controlling offense at the time of commitment. However, the data base does not indicate whether that person was in possession of a firearm at the time of the crime. This lack of data precludes the department from determining the impact of the proposed legislation.

      OLS further notes that because most juveniles adjudicated of committing offenses targeted by this bill while in the possession of a firearm currently serve custodial sentences, there would be no immediate impact on operations, according to the DOC. The impact of a mandatory minimum term would begin to accrue at some time in the future due to the increase lengths of stay.

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