In hopes of settling a suit brought by state prisoners, Governor Christine Todd Whitman's administration has agreed to eliminate the backlog of Parole Board hearings in 10 weeks and pay fines if it does not provide timely hearings during the next four years.
The proposed settlement was signed by attorneys for both sides and filed recently in U.S. District Court in Camden.
The centerpiece of the proposal is a requirement that the state pay a fine of $17.50 for each day the Parole Board fails to provide a timely hearing for an inmate. The penalty would be imposed only if an inmate filed a written complaint and the state still failed to provide the inmate with a hearing or a reason for the delay.
The penalty provision would end after four years.
The money would go to the Prisoners Resource Center of the American Friends
Service Committee, a Newark-based program that helps prisoners prepare for parole and reenter society.
Under state law, an inmate is entitled to a hearing 30 days before his or her parole eligibility date. But the state this year acknowledged that thousands of inmates who were eligible for parole did not receive a Parole Board decision or even a hearing.
At first, Parole Board officials said the backlog involved no more than a couple of hundred prisoners. But a review by the state Attorney General's Office soon placed the number at about 2,800 cases, prompting the state to enter into settlement negotiations and leading to an administrative shakeup at the Parole Board.
The backlog, which peaked at 3,409, has been cut to 982, Davis said.
In the settlement, the state agreed to clear the backlog within 10 weeks of court approval of the settlement. For the first two years after the agreement is approved, the state has agreed to provide inmates with parole hearings on or before their eligibility dates. For the third and fourth years, the state has agreed to comply with the law and provide inmates with hearings 30 days before their eligibility dates.