Bill Text: NJ S1510 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides that only certain DOC employees may recruit, interview, and hire corrections officers.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-22 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee [S1510 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-S1510-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JEFF VAN DREW
District 1 (Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland)
SYNOPSIS
Provides that only certain DOC employees may recruit, interview, and hire corrections officers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the recruitment, interviewing, and hiring of corrections officers and supplementing chapter 4 of Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Every employee of the Department of Corrections who participates in any aspect of recruiting, interviewing, or hiring a corrections officer shall have:
a. a minimum of five years' experience as a corrections officer; and
b. successfully completed a training program in gang awareness approved by the department.
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 employees of the Department of Corrections who participate in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring corrections officers to have a minimum of five years' experience as a corrections officer.
Corrections officers enjoy civil service protections and therefore often spend their careers in the position. Because of their job security, it is important that the best candidates be hired. Persons with experience as a corrections officer are best positioned to make this determination.
The bill also requires employees involved in the hiring process to have gang awareness training. Reportedly, gang members are attempting to procure corrections officer positions within this State's correctional facilities. By infiltrating the system, they can provide special treatment to inmate gang members and gain access to confidential gang information collected by the department. And because of civil service protections, it may prove difficult to remove a corrections officer affiliated with a gang. Therefore, it is important for persons involved in hiring corrections officers to be trained in how to identify a gang member and recognize gang activity.
This bill implements recommendations 6 and 8 of the Assembly Prison Gang Violence Task Force which issued its final report on December 12, 2006.
