Publications

It is my privilege to serve as the Executive Director of the New Jersey State Policy Lab. Since its launch in 2021, we have worked to build something meaningful—producing high-quality blogs and reports, sharing them widely on our website and across social media, and holding ourselves to a standard of excellence in everything we do. […]

In 2018, the New Jersey Attorney General established a unit aimed at “strengthening public confidence in government institutions,” known as the Office of Public Integrity & Accountability (OPIA). This office would operate under the auspices of the Department of Law & Public Safety within the Office of the Attorney General (Executive Directive No. 2019-8). It […]

We continue to share preliminary findings from our survey of 1,529 New Jersey residents on their support for sentencing reform in the state across four key areas. The third area of reform concerns the public’s support for implementing practical and equitable reform relating to financial penalties assessed by courts at sentencing. Financial penalties in criminal […]

Researchers at the John J. Heldrich Center, with funding from the New Jersey State Policy Lab, are currently engaged in a project to examine how New Jersey’s public Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives can better align with the evolving needs of small businesses in the state. Early stages of this work revealed a lack of a […]

Created by the New Jersey Office of Attorney General (NJOAG), the ARRIVE Together program (Alternative Responses to Reduce Instances of Violence and Escalation) seeks to make emergency responses safer for people in mental health crisis. It does so through an expansive set of responses that prioritize medical support. According to NJOAG, the program is the […]

The last thirty years have seen a revolution in the role of computing technology generally, and internet access specifically, in the basic patterns of American social, economic, and civic life. Yet in state prisons across the country, there has been little movement toward developing comprehensive, forward-looking policies regulating their use in incarceration. Whether it’s a […]

Bloustein Local completes comprehensive 26-article series helping New Jersey municipal leaders navigate technology decisions. After three years and 26 articles, Marc Pfeiffer, Associate Director and Senior Policy Fellow at Bloustein Local, has completed his “Tech Updates” series for New Jersey Municipalities magazine—a comprehensive guide designed to help local elected officials and administrators make sound technology […]

Imagine a police department that can anticipate where crime will strike tomorrow, next week, or next month—and position officers there before it happens. This isn’t science fiction. It’s the promise of predictive policing, a data-driven approach that uses algorithms to forecast crime patterns and inform deployment decisions. The promise is compelling: smarter policing, fewer victims, […]

In collaboration with the New Jersey State Policy Lab, the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development will conduct a study to understand how New Jersey’s public AI initiatives can better meet the needs of the state’s small businesses, particularly minority- and women-owned firms, as they increasingly engage with and deploy AI. Through a series […]

According to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, “two out of every three uses of force by law enforcement involve a civilian suffering from mental illness or who is under the influence. Over half of all fatal police encounters occur in similar circumstances.” These figures suggest that police need professional support to better […]

The New Jersey State government proactively advances equity through its Office of Equity in the Office of the Governor, and through budget initiatives such as the “Cover all Kids” program ensuring that the state’s children receive access to quality health care coverage. However, the state’s executive branch departments are not required to specifically account for […]

As New Jersey prepares to elect our next governor tomorrow, November 4th, the months ahead offer a pivotal opportunity to chart a path toward a more innovative and resilient state. To help inform this transition, the New Jersey State Policy Lab invited affiliated faculty and staff to identify the most pressing priorities for the next […]