20
CORRECTIONS REPORT
NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JANUARY 2015
Issues affecting Corrections in 2015
As another year comes to a close and we embark
into 2015, New Jersey Correctional Officers should
be vigilant on a few issues that will likely affect them
in the coming year.
while in the performance of their duties back in September 2014,
but after opposition from police unions and the ACLU, the Senator
plans on supporting a bill conducting a study on this issue instead.
Solitary confinement
Body cameras
There has been a recent push in the U.S. to equip
law enforcement officers with body cameras that
electronically record audio and video. Several
County jails have begun testing them with correctional officers, including those in Hall County,
Nebraska and Ingham County, Michigan. Even tough-on-inmates
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Arizona has requested
funds to buy body cameras under his new budget.
Funds to help pay for the purchase of body cameras may be coming from the Federal government; President Obama proposed that
the Federal government reimburse local law enforcement agencies
half the cost of buying cameras and storing video. The plan would
cost an estimated $75 million over three years to help purchase
50,000 devices.
In New Jersey, lawmakers want to study whether police throughout the state should wear body cameras. Legislators plan on introducing a bill that would establish a task force to study the
implementation of body cameras for police officers. On that task
force will be representatives from the various law enforcement
agencies as well as the ACLU, the NAACP and some public
members.
Senator Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) had introduced a bill (S2399)
that required all Law Enforcement Officers to wear body camera