By Claude Brodesser-Akner | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on December 15, 2016 at 3:23 PM, updated December 15, 2016 at 3:25 PM
TRENTON — A bipartisan bill that would add 20 new judges to New Jersey’s courts to help reduce the number of people in jail only because they can’t afford to post bail cleared the budget committees in the Senate and Assembly on Thursday.
The reform “will help make the state’s judicial system fairer and more effective with standards based on public safety rather than the ability to pay” for bail, said Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), one of its co-sponsors.
Currently, the average criminal defendant in New Jersey spends more than 10 months in jail awaiting trial, but in 40 percent of the cases, it’s only because they cannot afford to post bail.
