Issue Position: Second Chances and Victim Advocacy

Issue Position

Bryan Halsey was given a second change when, thanks to one juror who held out against the death penalty, after 19 years in jail, he walked out a free man because it was discovered he did not commit the heinous crime for which he was convicted -- the brutal murder of a 7 and 8 year old boy and girl, sexually assaulting the girl and driving nails into the boy's head. It's hard to imagine a more heinous crime, yet the US Supreme Court allows states to put to death persons convicted of heinous crimes, and the inevitable innocent, like Bryan, along with them. Hundreds of others like Bryan have been released from death row because they were wrongfully convicted. Hundreds of others wrongfully convicted have likely been executed.

Not in New Jersey, thanks to legislation I sponsored in 2007 replacing the death penalty with life without parole. New Jersey became the first state in over 30 years to abolish its death penalty. The Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome, a lay Catholic organization committed to abolishing the death penalty throughout the world, lit up the Roman Coliseum to celebrate this victory for human rights.

In 2008, The Road to Justice and Peace published a book I authored, The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished The Death Penalty. Since then, three other states, New Mexico, Illinois, and Connecticut have followed New Jersey's lead.

In 2009, I was honored to win the international human rights award given by Le Memorial de Caen, the D-Day and Human Rights Museum in France to lawyers, besting thousands of applicants and 10 finalists for my speech, The Road to Justice & Peace, pleading the case that the death penalty was a violation of a fundamental human right.

In addition to executing innocent people, the death penalty is more likely to be imposed on minorities for similar crimes as non-minorities and most often doesn't console family members of murder victims, many of whom testified in favor of my legislation before the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee.

Many academic studies have concluded that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder and in some have concluded that executions can cause a brutalization effect where the murder rate actually increases as a result.

Changing the culture of corrections in New Jersey and sending a beacon of that cultural change across our nation which imprisons a higher percentage of its population than any other nation in the world is my mission.

New Jersey is headed in the right direction. Drug Courts which divert substance abuse criminals from prison into treatment facilities have had a significant impact on both the state's rate of imprisonment and rate of repeat offenders. My legislation signed into law by Governor Christie will expand eligibility for drug court diversions by thousands. Also, my legislation signed into law by Governor Corzine now gives judges discretion to divert non violent drug offenders into supervised treatment facilities. This judicial discretion was not allowed under previous law.

Treatment options for substance abusers instead of prison saves money, saves lives and improves public safety by reducing repeat offenses. It doesn't get any better than that.

While moving in the right direction, there is much more that can be done to reduce our prison population, reduce costs and reduce repeat offenses.

We need to focus on the prison population, those offenders who deserve to be behind bars, but who will eventually be released back into our neighborhoods. It makes sense to give these criminals, most of whom have drug addictions, an opportunity to recover from their addictions and their criminal ways. It can be done and can reduce the costs of corrections which eat up over $1 billion of tax dollars a year.

How do you do that? Let me count the ways. I have introduced legislation to give prisoners an opportunity to "earn their way out" by completing an addiction recovery program. I have introduced legislation establishing presumptive parole for model prisoners which would divert millions of dollars from the bureaucratic make work of the Parole Board, a haven of political patronage, into programs like "Focus On The Victim" which brings together the criminal with his/her victim. This program has been incredibly successful in getting the criminal to understand the harm done to a fellow human being. Surprisingly, there are 2000 prisoners on the waiting list wanting to participate in this enlightening experience. We can expand this program and others with the $100 million cost savings provided by presumptive parole.

Removing unnecessary employment barriers is another way to save lives and enhance public safety. An ex-offender with the doors to employment slammed in his face will not be an ex-offender for long. He'll be a repeat offender.

Legislation I sponsored has been signed into law removing restrictions on ex-offenders working in any business with a liquor license, not as a chef, in maintenance or cleanup. Crazy, but there are many more impediments to an ex-offender getting a job. I aim to change that and change the culture of corrections. We'll all be better off if we do.

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