STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman MATTHEW W. MILAM
District 1 (Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland)
SYNOPSIS
Requires civilian employees of DOC to be trained in gang awareness.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act requiring gang awareness training for civilian employees of the Department of Corrections and supplementing P.L.1976, c.98 (C.30:1B-6).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Commissioner of Corrections shall institute a program to annually provide at least four hours of gang awareness training to each civilian employee of an institution within the jurisdiction of the department.
b. The training required in subsection a. of this section shall be in addition to any other training required for these employees.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month after enactment, but the commissioner may take such anticipatory action prior to the effective date as needed to effectuate the act's provisions.
STATEMENT
This bill would require the Commissioner of Corrections to institute a program to annually provide at least four hours of gang awareness training to each civilian employee in an institution within the jurisdiction of the department. This training would be in addition to any other training that these civilian employees are already required to receive.
It is important that civilian staff who regularly work with inmates, such as teachers and social workers, be informed about gangs so that they are alert to the signs of gang membership. Such training results in these employees confidently and accurately reporting their observations concerning gang membership to their superiors, corrections officers, and gang investigators.
This bill implements recommendation 2 of the Assembly Prison Gang Violence Task Force which issued its final report on December 12, 2006.