WASHINGTON, March 26, 2020 — The chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court recently entered an order that temporarily suspended the county jail sentences for 1,000 inmates. The order is viewed as a model to decrease jail populations to limit the spread of COVID-19 in other states.
The ABA will conduct a free webinar, “New Jersey COVID-19 Jail Release Agreement,” from 3 to 4 p.m. on Friday, March 27. The webinar is sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, and ABA Criminal Justice Section.
A panel of legal experts will discuss the collaboration involved to create the agreement and how other states could glean from this example. The agreement involved the attorney general, the County Prosecutors Association of the State of New Jersey, the state’s public defender office and the ACLU.
Panelists include:
- Miriam Gohara, clinical associate professor, Yale Law School; special adviser, ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants
- Andrew Bruck, executive assistant attorney general, State of New Jersey
- Joseph Krakora, chief public defender, New Jersey State Office of Public Defender
- Alexander Shalom, senior supervising attorney, ACLU of New Jersey
To register for the program, click here. Additional resources for the webinar are available here. The program will be recorded, and the link will be shared with all registrants. There is no charge for media covering this event. To register, please contact Betsy Adeboyejo at 202-662-1039 or Betsy.Adeboyejo@americanbar.org.
Additional reporter resources on the ABA’s COVID-19 response and outreach are available here.
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