O’Scanlon, DiMaso & Scharfenberger Condemn Scheming by Executive and Judicial Branches of Government to Release Dangerous Prisoners into Communities

“The powers of the government shall be divided among three distinct branches, the legislative, executive, and judicial. No person or persons belonging to or constituting one branch shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as expressly provided in this Constitution.” N.J. Const. Art. III, § (1.) [emphasis added]

Senator Declan O’Scanlon, Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso, and Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Monmouth) expressed their grave concerns at the actions taken by the New Jersey Judicial and Executive branches of government with regard to the temporary release of prisoners.

Last Sunday, Chief Justice Rabner signed an order for the temporary release of almost 1,000 inmates serving their sentences in county jails in an attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

“This action is wrong on its merits, and wrong according to law and the separation of powers laid out in our constuction. The Legislature, by design, is supposed to be part of our lawmaking and decision making process. Our NJ founding fathers recognized the hopefully, collective wisdom of the legislature. It is both foolish, and unlawful, not to tap into that reserve on a decision of this magnitude,” said O’Scanlon. “I have a great relationship and the utmost respect for members of the Judiciary, the Governor, and the Attorney General. However, we make criminal and sentencing laws clear and unambiguous for a reason, in addition to the boundaries set very clearly in the constitution regarding the separation of powers. I am not a legal scholar. I know some people in the Judiciary who say they are. So it shocked and disturbed me to hear that the Judiciary and the Executive Branch of government schemed together and thought that it was a good idea to unilaterally usurp our law making powers.”

In Monmouth County, 62 inmates were eligible for early release under the order. The prosecutor’s office vehemently opposed 22 of those, and had to scramble last week and make appeals. Some of those slated for release had criminal histories that included: assaults on police officers, arson, domestic violence, Megan’s Law offenses, and murder.

“Thankfully, we currently do not have COVID-19 in our jail in Monmouth County,” DiMaso said. “Even if we did, some of the inmates proposed to be released into our community under this court order posed a serious threat to our community. We should be making sure that we are making every social distancing effort within our jails, not sending prisoners back out into the community. We were fortunate in Monmouth that Prosecutor Grammiccioni and Sheriff Golden fought hard to mitigate this near total disaster.”

“It’s bad enough that the Governor’s office made the request without consulting the Legislature or asking for emergency legislation,” said Scharfenberger. “It’s worse that the Governor went to the Judiciary, the supposed neutral branch of government, and they went along with it. It sets a dangerous precedent. These people were in prison for a reason and to send them out into communities without the appropriate discussions with the Legislature is highly concerning. ”

“We were lucky in Monmouth, but I can guarantee that there were criminals released elsewhere in the State that posed a serious threat to their communities,” O’Scanlon concluded. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The safety of our law abiding citizens is our chief concern. We understand the need to protect the prison population, but this situation required a scalpel, not a buzz saw.”