Public support and opinion drive many facets of the criminal justice system and its policies, including changes to sentencing laws and guidelines (Pickett, 2019). Thus, understanding public attitudes towards changes to the system can aid in understanding whether policies or reforms may be positively received and later adopted (Enns, 2016). In our study, we explore the public’s views of four sentencing reforms in New Jersey that have been recently recommended by the state’s Sentencing Commission–each of which is described here.
The first recommendation focuses on defendants who are survivors of abuse by their respective victims. In some situations, individuals who have been subjected to abuse by another, typically a partner (otherwise known as intimate partner violence or IPV), may seek physical harm to stop or alleviate that abuse and/or trauma (Mukamal et al., 2024). Though a frequently debated subject, research suggests that most often these individuals would not have committed such violence had they not been subjected to abuse or given alternate forms of protection (Heffernan, 2024). Thus, this reform establishes that a defendant’s background and history of abuse, specifically because they pose a lesser risk to the public and due to their experiences of trauma, may be weighed as a mitigating factor during sentencing.
The second recommendation establishes a program in which rehabilitation factors–experiences or characteristics that indicate a defendant’s decreased likelihood of recidivism and/or an increased likelihood of success during reentry–would be weighed to reconsider a defendant’s sentence length. The creation of such a program would consider the age, length of time served, and tangible proof of rehabilitation in their possible resentencing; this recommendation stems from beliefs that over time, people can change and should be re-evaluated based on those changes (Feldman, 2025).
The third recommendation allows for greater discretion in sentencing to reduce financial penalties that may be deemed excessive for defendants. Sentencing in New Jersey specifically has had “dramatic and disproportionate impacts on people of color… [many of whom] are not in a position to meet these financial obligations.” Partially as a result, New Jersey only collects around 20% of the legal financial obligations (LFOs) imposed (NJ Sentencing Commission, 2023 & 2024). Thus, this recommendation stems not only from beliefs that LFOs may be inequitable and ineffective, but also that they disproportionately impact certain groups in New Jersey.
The fourth and final recommendation would be to remove mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses that were non-violent, as well as review sentences to defendants who were sentenced to 30+ years before the age of 18. This recommendation eliminates mandatory minimums as a sentencing option, as they are known to be one of the largest contributors to racial disparities within the New Jersey correctional system (NJ Sentencing Commission, 2023 & 2024).
Overall, the goals of these recommendations by the Sentencing Commission are to reduce inequities and racial disparities seen in the criminal justice and corrections systems in New Jersey, as well as encourage the use of rehabilitation in sentencing practices. By assessing the New Jersey public’s views of sentencing reforms in these areas, we can better understand to what degree these policies may be successfully utilized in the state moving forward.
References:
Enns, P. K. (2016). Incarceration nation: How the United States became the most punitive democracy in the world. Cambridge University Press.
Feldman, B. (2025, March 26). The second look movement: a review of the nation’s sentence review laws. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-second-look-movement-a-review-of-the-nations-sentence-review-laws/
Heffernan, S. (2024, September 14). The domestic Abuse Survivor to Prison pipeline. The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/09/14/california-women-prison-domestic-abuse
Mukamal, D., Cimino, A. N., Cleveland, B., Dougherty, E., Lewittes, J., & Zimmerman, B. (2024). Fatal peril: Unheard stories from the IPV-to-prison pipeline. Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
New Jersey Department of Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission, March 2023 Report, 2023.
New Jersey Department of Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission, November 2024 Report, 2024.