Increases size of Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission; broadens reporting duties.

A2172

ASSEMBLY, No. 2172

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman SHANIQUE SPEIGHT

District 29 (Essex and Hudson)

Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

SYNOPSIS

���� Increases size of Criminal Sentencing and Disposition
Commission; broadens reporting duties.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act
concerning the Criminal Sentencing and Disposition
Commission and amending P.L. 2009, c.81.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� Section 1 of P.L. 2009,
c. 81 (2C:48A-1) is amended to read as follows:

���� 1.��� a.� There is hereby
created a commission to be known as the "Criminal Sentencing and
Disposition Commission" to consist of
[
13
]

17

members as follows: the Attorney General, or his designee; the Public Defender,
or his designee; the Chief Justice, or a designee of the Chief Justice who may
be a retired judge with experience in the Criminal Division of the Superior
Court; the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, or his designee; the
Chairman of the State Parole Board, or his designee; the President of the New
Jersey County Prosecutors Association, or his designee; the President of the
New Jersey Bar Association, or his designee;
the chair of the Legislative
Black Caucus or his designee; the Chair of the Legislative Latino Caucus, or
his designee;
one public member appointed by the Senate President; one
public member appointed by the Senate Minority Leader; one public member
appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly; one public member appointed
by the Assembly Minority Leader; and
[
two
]

four

public members appointed by the Governor, not more than
[
one
]

two
of
whom shall be of the same political party.� In selecting the public members,
the Senate President, the Senate Minority Leader, the Speaker of the General
Assembly, the Assembly Minority Leader and the Governor should seek to include
persons who have experience, training, or academic background in victims'
rights advocacy, corrections, judicial administration or criminal law.� The
public members appointed by the Governor shall include one representative of a
police organization.

���� Public members shall serve for
a term of three years from their date of appointment and until their successors
are appointed and qualified.� Any vacancy in the membership of the commission
shall be filled by appointment in the same manner as the original appointment.
Vacancies resulting from causes other than by expiration of term shall be
filled for the unexpired term only.

���� b.��� The commission shall
organize as soon as possible after the appointment of its members.� The Senate
President and the Speaker of the General Assembly shall appoint one of the
public members to serve as chair and the Minority Leader of the Senate and the Minority
Leader of the Assembly shall appoint one of the public members to serve as
vice-chair.�

���� c.���� The members of the
commission shall serve without compensation, but shall be eligible for
reimbursement for necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in the performance
of their official duties within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise
made available to the commission for its purposes.

���� d.��� The Office of
Legislative Services shall provide staffing for the work of the commission. At
the request of the commission all State entities shall, as soon as practicable,
provide the commission with any available information concerning sentencing.�
In addition, the commission shall be entitled to accept the assistance and
services of such employees of any State, county, or municipal department,
board, bureau, commission, or agency as may be made available to it and to
employ such legal, stenographic, technical, and clerical assistance and incur
such expenses as may be necessary in order to perform its duties within the
limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to it for its
purposes.

(cf: P.L.2009, c.81, s.1)

���� 2.��� Section 2 of P.L. 2009,
c. 81 (C.2C:48A-2) is amended to read as follows:

���� 2.��� a.� It shall be the duty
of the commission to conduct a thorough review of the criminal sentencing
provisions of New Jersey law for consideration of possible recommendations for
revisions to the laws governing the criminal justice system.� These recommendations
shall be developed with the goal of providing a rational, just and
proportionate sentencing scheme that achieves to the greatest extent possible
public safety, offender accountability, crime reduction and prevention, and
offender rehabilitation while promoting the efficient use of the State's
resources.�

���� b.���
[
Additionally
]

As part of
its review
, the commission shall consider issues regarding disparity
[
in
]

throughout

the criminal justice process, including but not limited to racial and ethnic
disparity issues.� The recommendations shall be based on the available
statistical data as well as any other relevant information.

����
c.
���� As provided in
section 4 of P.L.2009, c.81 (C.2C:48A-4), the commission shall submit to the
Governor and the Legislature reports containing its recommendations consistent
with these purposes.� The commission's reports shall include, but need not be
limited to, recommendations regarding:

���� (1)�� An assessment of the
current sentencing provisions under New Jersey law, and a consideration as to
whether the sentencing options available to courts are sufficient or should be
expanded in some manner to provide a greater range of sentencing options;

���� (2)�� A review of judicial
discretion available under the Criminal Code, considering the appropriateness
of existing mandatory minimum sentencing and whether it would be beneficial to
enhance, reduce or retain the current level of judicial discretion;

���� (3)�� A recommendation as to
whether determinate sentencing should be extended to all criminal offenses, or
to additional criminal offenses under New Jersey law;

���� (4)�� A recommendation as to
appropriate limits and conditions on terms of supervised release, including
whether there should be a mechanism for changing the length of a term of
supervised release after its imposition and whether there should be supervised
release for offenders who serve their maximum sentence;

���� (5)�� A projection of the
impact, if any, on the size of� New Jersey's correctional and supervised
offender populations of the implementation of each measure proposed by the
commission;

���� (6)�� A recommendation for
intermediate, alternative or additional sanctions that should be made available
in the New Jersey criminal justice system, including proposals for alternatives
to incarceration for suitable offenders, the estimated cost of such programs,
and recommendations for rules or principles to guide a judge's imposition of
such sanctions as part of a criminal sentence; and

���� (7)�� A review of disparity
issues in the criminal justice process, including but not limited to racial and
ethnic disparity issues, whether evidenced in sentencing outcomes or at earlier
stages of the criminal process, such as but not limited to
policing,

charging and plea decisions,
access to criminal defense legal
representation, and jury selection processes,
and recommend appropriate
revisions or other means to address any such issues.

(cf: P.L.2009, c.81, s.2)

���� 3.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

���� This bill increases the
membership of the Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission, and expands
the duties of the commission.� The CSDC was established in 2009 by P.L.2009,
c.81 and is charged with conducting a thorough review of the criminal sentencing
provisions of New Jersey law for consideration of possible recommendations for
revisions to the laws governing the criminal justice system.�

���� Under the bill, the membership
of the commission increases from 13 to 17 members.� The additional members
shall include the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus or his designee and the
Chair of the Legislative Latino Caucus, or his designee.� The bill adds two
additional public members, for a total of four public members, not more than two
of whom shall be of the same political party.

���� The bill broadens the scope of
the annual report from the CSDC to the Governor and the Legislature concerning
disparity issues in the criminal justice process, to add such areas as
policing, access to criminal defense legal representation, and jury selection
processes to the existing reporting area of charging and plea decisions.