RESEARCH REPORT November 2003 A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in New Jersey Jeremy Travis Sinead Keegan Eric Cadora with Amy Solomon and Charles Swartz research for safer communities The nonpartisan Urban Institute To receive free monthly email updates publishes studies, reports, and on the research of the Justice Policy books on timely topics worthy of Center, join the Center’s email 2100 M STREET, NW public consideration. The views distribution list by sending an email WASHINGTON, DC 20037 expressed are those of the authors, to [email protected]. www.urban.org and should not be attributed to the (202) 833-7200 Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. http://JPC.urban.org A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in New Jersey Jeremy Travis Sinead Keegan Eric Cadora with Amy Solomon and Charles Swartz copyright @ 2003 The Urban Institute About the Authors Justice Policy Center 2100 M street, NW Washington, DC 20037 www.urban.org (202) 833-7200 Jeremy Travis is a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute and is co-chair of the Reentry Roundtable—a group of prominent academics, practitioners, service providers, and commu- The views expressed are nity leaders working to advance policies and innovations on prisoner reentry that reflect those of the authors and solid research. Before he joined the Urban Institute, Mr. Travis was the director of the should not be attributed to National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Travis The Urban Institute, its has been an active figure in the development of a policy and research agenda on the issue trustees, or its funders. of prisoner reentry. He is the author of the article “But They All Come Back: Rethinking Prisoner Reentry,” and shaped the federal initiative on reentry courts and reentry partner- The Justice Policy center ships. (JPC) carries out nonparti- Mr. Travis earned his JD, cum laude, from the New York University School of Law; san research to inform the an MPA from the New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; and a national dialogue on crime, BA in American Studies, cum laude, from Yale College. justice and community Sinead Keegan is a Research Associate at the Urban Institute. Her primary research inter- safety. For more information ests are the effects of crime and crime policy on communities. She is currently the Project on JPC’s reentry research, and Data Manager for a project developing performance indicators for the U.S. visit http://jpc.urban.org/ Department of Justice’s Weed and Seed Program. In addition, Ms. Keegan is involved in a reentry. To receive monthly project examining whether Weed and Seed initiatives lead to the displacement of crime in email updates on JPC southern Florida. She has also conducted research on prisoner reentry in the District of research, send an email to Columbia, with a particular focus on the availability of housing for ex-offenders. [email protected]. Ms. Keegan has a Master’s in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a BA in Government with a concentration in Public Service from the University of Notre Dame. JPC Publication Her Master’s thesis examined a number of previously unmeasured social costs of incar- # CPR03 0105 ceration using advanced statistical techniques. Ms. Keegan originally hails from Bergen County, New Jersey. Eric Cadora is a community justice consultant and a Program Officer for The After Prison Initiative of the Open Society Institute. The After Prison Initiative is a grantmaking program created to promote social and criminal justice policies that place reintegration and public safety equity at the center of the criminal justice mission. Mr. Cadora has helped to fash- ion The After Prison Initiative’s grantmaking agenda in four priority areas: Justice Reinvestment, New Leadership Development, National Re-Entry Policy Reform, and Reduction of Civil Barriers to Reintegration. In 1998 with OSI funding, he launched The Community Justice Project at the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES), which advocates for a rein- vestment of justice resources in communities suffering high rates of incarceration and pro- vides technical assistance to corrections and communities to implement community justice programs. CASES is New York’s largest and longest running alternative to incarcer- ation program. Employing an innovative geographical analysis of criminal justice activity at the neighborhood level, Eric speaks at national forums around the country about the impact of high rates of incarceration on low-income communities and promotes the use of financial reinvestment strategies to interrupt the decades-long cycle of incarceration, release, and re-incarceration that these core communities continue to suffer. Amy Solomon is a Policy Associate at the Urban Institute, where she works to link the research activities of the Justice Policy Center to policy and practice arenas in the field. Her primary areas of concentration are prisoner reentry and problem-solving approaches to public safety. Charles Swartz is the President of Geographic Research Solutions (GRS), a consulting com- pany that provides research, mapping and spatial analysis services to both public and private sector clients. Before starting GRS, Charles was a Geographic Information Systems Researcher at the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES) in New York. ii A PORTRAIT OF PRISONER REENTRY IN NEW JERSEY Contents Executive Summary......................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3 About the Data ........................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1 Policy Context ............................................................................................................ 7 PRISON POPULATION ON THE RISE ............................................................................ 7 EXPLAINING NEW JERSEY INCARCERATION TRENDS ............................................... 8 TRENDS IN CRIME......................................................................................................... 9 THE EFFECTS OF SENTENCING REFORMS .................................................................12 PAROLE REVOCATIONS................................................................................................17 SUMMARY .....................................................................................................................18 Sentencing Reform in New Jersey............................................................................19 CHAPTER 2 What Are the Characteristics of New Jersey’s Returning Inmates? ............21 DEMOGRAPHICS ...........................................................................................................21 CONVICTION OFFENSE .................................................................................................21 TIME SERVED ................................................................................................................21 CRIMINAL HISTORY AND THE REVOLVING DOOR .....................................................22 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH PROBLEMS ...........................................................24 Juvenile Reentry ........................................................................................................26 CHAPTER 3 How Are Prisoners Prepared for Release? ..........................................................27 DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS PROGRAMMING ...................................................27 EDUCATIONAL SERVICES .............................................................................................28 EMPLOYMENT READINESS ..........................................................................................28 SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT................................................................................30 RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENT PROGRAMS .....................................................................31 CHAPTER 4 How Are Prisoners Released in New Jersey? ....................................................33 PRISONER RELEASES ...................................................................................................33 POST-RELEASE SUPERVISION......................................................................................35 PAROLE SUPERVISION .................................................................................................35 PROBATION SUPERVISION...........................................................................................38 Sentence Reduction Credits ......................................................................................39 CHAPTER 5 Where Are Prisoners Returning? ...........................................................................41 NEW JERSEY’S COUNTIES ...........................................................................................42 ESSEX COUNTY AND NEWARK ....................................................................................42 CAMDEN COUNTY AND THE CITY OF CAMDEN .........................................................44 CHAPTER 6 Summary .....................................................................................................................63 HIGHLIGHTS...................................................................................................................63 iii List of Figures CHAPTER