O’Scanlon, DiMaso & Scharfenberger Applaud Court’s Reversal on Release of Dangerous Prisoners

Senator Declan O’Scanlon, Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso, and Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (all R-Monmouth) today applauded the NJ Supreme Court’s decision to reverse an order that nearly permitted the release of seven criminals into the public.

“This is a huge win for the rule of law,” said O’Scanlon. “Monmouth should be extremely proud of the hard work and dedication of Prosecutor Gramiccioni and his dedicated team of assistant prosecutors. Thankfully, they, and Sheriff Golden raised the alarm early about this and worked at a grueling pace to prevent it. This would have been an unmitigated disaster without them.”

Late yesterday, in the reversal, State Supreme Court Justice’s Rabner, LaVecchia, Patterson, Fernandez-Vina, Solomon, and Timpone joined in an order granting the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s emergent application that sought reversal of the Appellate Division permitting the release of prisoners the prosecutor deemed a threat to the public. Only Justice Albin dissented.

“I am glad to see that the Court sided with Monmouth, but it should have never come to this. Justice Rabner should have never granted the initial order that created this mess,” DiMaso said. “Should the executive and judicial branches of government wanted emergency powers to release prisoners – which is an incredibly concerning and nuanced conversation – then they should have consulted with the Legislature. We are balancing public safety with that of our county prison population, the mistake shouldn’t have been made that even required a reversal.”

Initially, the Court sought to permit a total 62 prisoners to be released from the Monmouth County Jail. The County Prosecutor vehemently opposed 22 over public safety concerns. Over the last week, the Appellate court reversed on only 15 of those prisoners, and the order last night from the State Supreme Court ensured that all 22 were kept in the jail.

“In Monmouth we are fortunate to have these dedicated and extremely competent professionals in our service and we should look to suspend the practice as a whole,” Scharfenberger concluded. “The Constitution is not intended to be a mere set of suggestions. It’s the foundation for the American way of life. I understand that this is a dire situation, but in times of crisis, more than ever, we need to have faith in our institutions and work together to get through this.”