Bill Text: NJ A2842 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires Special Investigations Division to issue monthly report on sexual abuse in State correctional facilities.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee [A2842 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A2842-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ANTHONY S. VERRELLI
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Assemblywoman AURA K. DUNN
District 25 (Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires Special Investigations Division to issue monthly report on sexual abuse in State correctional facilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act requiring Special Investigations Division to report certain information relating to sexual abuse in State correctional facilities and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Special Investigations Division in each correctional facility in this State shall submit to the Commissioner of Corrections and the facility administrator:
(1) within 48 hours of receipt of a complaint of sexual abuse by an inmate, an executive summary of that complaint; and
(2) no later than the tenth day of each month, a report summarizing the investigation to date of each allegation of sexual assault during the preceding month and status updates of other investigations that have not been closed.
b. For the purposes of this section, "facility administrator" means the chief operating officer or senior administrative designee of the correctional facility.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Special Investigations Division in each correctional facility in this State to submit to the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the administrator of the facility certain information concerning investigations of alleged sexual abuse.
The bill specifically requires an executive summary of a complaint of sexual abuse to be submitted to the DOC and facility administrator within 48 hours of when the complaint is received. The bill also requires a report to be submitted by the tenth day of each month summarizing the investigations to date of allegations of sexual assault in the preceding month and status updates of investigations that have not yet been closed.
It is the sponsor's intent to address reports that correctional police officers assigned to the Special Investigations Division in State correctional facilities have systematically failed to investigate complaints of sexual abuse by inmates, conducted inadequate and incomplete investigations of these complaints, or closed investigations as unsubstantiated without applying the appropriate preponderance of the evidence standard. Had certain correctional police officers been properly investigated in earlier cases of alleged sexual abuse, they may have been prevented from committing sexual abuse crimes for which they subsequently were convicted.
