FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP (Somerset County) — It had to be a trap, Stacy Northrop thought. She had heard about a program where people with outstanding warrants could turn themselves in with little risk of jail time, but she was skeptical. She had years of warrants for drug possession, theft and loitering. "I thought they were going to get a bunch...
Stacy Northrop, left, and her mother Barbara Smith, right, pose for a portrait at Smith's home in Penns Grove, N.J. In 2008 Smith convinced Northrop to participate in Camden County's Fugitive Safe Surrender program. Northrop, homeless and struggling with drug addiction, was able to clear her warrants and restart her life.FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP (Somerset County) — It had to be a trap, Stacy Northrop thought.
She had heard about a program where people with outstanding warrants could turn themselves in with little risk of jail time, but she was skeptical. She had years of warrants for drug possession, theft and loitering.
"I thought they were going to get a bunch of people all in one spot with false hope, and we’d be sitting there, and they’d cart us off to jail," Northrop said.
So she stood outside a Camden church watching a long line of people waiting to turn themselves in at New Jersey’s first fugitive safe-surrender program. Only after she saw enough people successfully walk back out did she get in line herself.
"Little did I know that turning myself in to law enforcement would be my ticket to freedom," she said. "Who would have thought?"
When Northrop surrendered in 2008, she was homeless and struggling with drug addiction. Today, the employed mother of two will stand with New Jersey’s top law enforcement officials to announce the state’s third safe-surrender program, this one in the Somerset section of Franklin Township next month.
People with outstanding warrants will be able to turn themselves in from Nov. 3-6 at the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens. Cases will be adjudicated a few blocks away at the McKinley Community School in New Brunswick.
Officials hope 2,500 people show up. Any U.S. citizen with any kind of warrant — from traffic tickets to homicide — can surrender.
"It is probably one of the most heart-wrenching and uplifting law enforcement initiatives I’ve ever been involved in," Attorney General Paula Dow said. "It shows a different side of law enforcement."
Law enforcement officials said the program benefits both police and individuals with outstanding warrants. Police don’t have to mount risky operations to capture fugitives, and people have a chance to start fresh by clearing their records.
"It’s safer for the community, safer for law enforcement, and safer for the fugitive. In addition to that, it’s cost effective," said James Plousis, chairman of the state Parole Board. "We’re doing it for a fraction of what it would cost to go arrest these people. And we’re getting these people back as productive citizens."
Across the country, 25,216 people have turned themselves in at safe-surrender programs. The first one in New Jersey was held in 2008 in Camden, where 2,245 people surrendered. The second was in Newark last year, and 4,103 people surrendered.
Winston Jones, 63, of East Orange was one of them. While working as a technology salesman, he received lots of parking tickets and as business dropped off, he had trouble keeping up.
"They just accumulated to $1,500," he said. "I was working two jobs trying to pay them off."
Unable to drive and feeling trapped by his warrants, he decided to turn himself in. He said he ended up paying about $180.
Lori Scott-Pickens, director of community outreach at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, said she’s been coordinating with local groups to boost turnout at next month’s event. In addition, she hopes officials are able to convince more Hispanic residents to turn themselves in.
"I think we’re going to see the most Spanish-speaking people that this project has ever seen," she said. "We’ve got some of their key leadership on board."
Northrop, 41, said the safe-surrender program helped her turn her life around. Warrants were holding her back from getting ID cards, housing and help for her addiction.
"I kept amassing warrants and committing crimes, and breaking the law," she said. "When you’re outside of the law, you have no choice but to continue to live outside of the law."
When she turned herself in, she received a court date for a few months later. She eventually paid $7,000 in fines and restitution. That allowed her to clear her warrants and put her on a path to treatment.
She started speaking out in support of the safe-surrender program in Delaware, where she now works at an organization helping the addicted and former inmates. While speaking at events in Delaware, Northrop said she started running into people she knew when she was homeless and using drugs.
They were very surprised to see me, to say the least," she said. "They said, ‘Look at you, what happened?’ I said, ‘I turned myself in.’ "