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Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) will be the key speaker Monday at a Statehouse rally supporting a six-bill package she's sponsoring in an attempt to save taxpayer dollars by improving rehabilitation efforts and cutting recidivism.
The rally is being organized by the New Jersey Association on Corrections and is expected to draw 400 to 500 people.
The bills — A-4197-4198-4199-4201-4202-4203 — among other things, would require inmates to receive an education and learn job skills.
"Some people may enjoy humoring themselves with rants defending the status quo of wasted taxpayer money and wasted lives, but these reforms would be among the smartest moves we could make to save taxpayer dollars" Watson Coleman said Friday.
About 14,000 inmates are annually released from New Jersey prisons, with 65 percent of adults re-arrested within five years. Taxpayers pay $39,099 per year per inmate.
"The idea that we would willingly continue to fork over $39,000 in taxpayer money per year for every inmate and find that acceptable is hard to comprehend," Watson Coleman said. "This waste cannot continue, and as we look for ways to save money in these difficult economic times, this approach is both the moral and smart thing to do."
The rally is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of the Statehouse Annex. Watson Coleman is set to speak at 10 a.m.
— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
She found a lot wrong. She also lost all faith that the Corrections Dept. would listen to her and reform themselves.
Unfortunately when she wrote these Bills too much was added that would cost money and might not be needed.
What is really needed is a complete reform of this Billion dollar ,dysfunctional and wasteful Department. Over three quarters of her suggested reforms can be implemented,at no cost to the taxpayers, if you put competent people in charge .
It will be a real shame if her Bills fail simply because of the expense.
What needs to occur is for Chrisite to clean house at Corrections ,put competent people in charge, and then reread Watson-Colemans suggestions and put people in place who can fix this mess.
This should not be a Legislative issue . This is simply a problem that can be handled with new competent leadership in that Department.