Evidence-Building through Policy Analysis: The Partnership between Rutgers and the NJ Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission

• In Event: Rutgers at 50: Evidence-based Practices and Post-Conviction Policies

Abstract

The School of Criminal Justice has had a longstanding involvement with the state of New Jersey’s efforts to engage in evidence-based criminal justice policy making and analysis. In this presentation the author provides some insights into one of these partnerships: the SCJ’s relationship with the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission. Created in 2009 by the state Legislature, the Commission’s mission is to review criminal sentencing provisions so that recommendations may be made to revise laws governing the criminal justice system. Historical accounts of the School’s involvement with the Commission will be reviewed, and the author will provide insights into projects currently being worked on by the Commission and the SCJ. These projects include analyses of outcomes of one of the country’s largest single-day prison release events due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as processes underlying the imposition of monetary sanctions for people that are convicted of indictable offenses.

Author

• Michael Ostermann, Rutgers University - Newark