New Jersey’s Budget Crunch
Members of the New Jersey administration appeared this week before the State Senate Budget Committee. The NJ DOC was no exception, as reported by NJ.com.
Department of Corrections Commissioner George Hayman told the committee: “We are living through an era when each expenditure must be scrutinized and every efficiency realized.”
New Jersey’s inmate population continues to drop — from 22,908 in 2007 to a projected 21,715 next year — but the annual cost of housing inmates continues to rise, to $38,500 per inmate. Prisons remain over capacity, with 5,563 more inmates than the facilities were designed for.
The department is doing everything from buying milk and cereal in bulk to closing a prison, Riverfront State Prison in Camden, this year to save money, Hayman said.
Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer County), asked about drug treatment and rehabilitation programs, which she said could help reduce the number of former convicts returning to prison. Hayman said they were doing the best they could with limited resources. “We treat as many as we can treat,” he said.