New Jersey legislators are currently considering a rash of backward-thinking bills meant to appeal to concerns about crime, but which propose stale and ineffective approaches that will increase incarceration and disproportionately harm our Black and Brown communities. 

These bills increase penalties and crime classifications for acts including drug possession, burglary (violent crime has been decreasing) and auto theft (which has also been declining).  

What we don’t see are needed bills to invest in our communities with creative and proven programs to support young people and adults and keep them out of the criminal justice system in the first place.  

New Jersey’s criminal justice system already has the worst racial disparities in the nation for incarceration, with Black youth 18 times more likely to be locked up than white youth even though they commit most offenses at similar rates, and Black adults 12 times more likely to be incarcerated than white adults.  

The last thing we need is to make things worse.