TRENTON — A state senate budget hearing on the Department of Corrections and the Parole Board today focused more on policy than figures. The discussions involved an early-release program that has come under fire from Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle after two inmates who were allowed out of prison months early were accused...
TRENTON — A state senate budget hearing on the Department of Corrections and the Parole Board today focused more on policy than figures.
The discussions involved an early-release program that has come under fire from Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle after two inmates who were allowed out of prison months early were accused of murder.
The early-release program, which began at the start of the year, allows certain inmates to be released six months early, placing them under parole supervision or in a halfway house.
Parole Board chairman James Plousis told the state budget committee that 317 people have been released under the program since it started in January. Of those, 11 have been arrested again on new charges and six others are wanted by police on outstanding warrants, Plousis said.
Two of the former inmates who were arrested have been charged with murder. The others faced new charges on an array of crimes, from drug possession to domestic violence.
State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson) questioned Plousis on why Rondell Jones, who was charged with murder by the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, was able to commit the crime. Three days before the alleged crime, a warrant was issued for Jones arrest after he failed to meet the conditions of his parole.
"Did you not know where he was?" Cunningham asked.
Plousis said that staff knew where he was, but did not elaborate. He then went on to say that the state is successful at making sure parole violators are quickly apprehended.
He blamed the program, saying it has upended a system "that has worked fine for 40 years."
State Sen. Joe Pennachio (R-Morris) later criticized Cunningham's line of questioning, saying scapegoating the parole board ignores the problems with the early-release program.
"We knew where they were," said Pennachio. "They were in jail, until we let them out."
Under a conditional veto, Christie has called for repealing the law that created the early-release program, which was pushed by Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) and signed by then-Gov. Jon Corzine.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said they will review the program and make the necessary changes.
