Its parts are inextricably intertwined. For example, virtually everyone in the field agrees that improvements in the juvenile justice system could help resolve adult crime issues. They feel that way because most inmates serving long sentences in state prisons have long juvenile records. At the same time, however, many juvenile offenders come before a judge just once, reform their delinquent behavior, and go on to lead productive lives. This raises several questions for us to consider over these two days.
Similar questions arise about mandatory sentencing.
For the last two decades, New Jersey has systematically stiffened sentences in the interest of deterring crime. Then there's money. But corrections officials worry that replacing inmate activities with idleness would only increase tensions in an already tense atmosphere, and breed the kinds of conditions that led to the Rahway and Attica riots in the 1970s. As you observe the criminal justice and corrections systems in action, consider also how the part of the system that your team examines interacts with the other parts.