SPRING 2004[Salem Quarterly Meeting united with the following minute, which originated in Burlington Quarterly Meeting—Ed.]
s members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and as followers of Jesus, we are convinced that there is “that of God in every one” and that human personality is sacred. We are called by God to respect all people and to treat them with love and dignity as our brothers and sisters, all equal in the sight of God. We are also convinced of the redemptive power of love as taught and demonstrated by Jesus. We believe in the continuing revelation of God’s will for us if we are attentive to the promptings of the Divine Spirit within us. These convictions form the basis of our views of the criminal justice system, what its goals should be and how it should be operated in an effort to achieve those goals.
We are committed to the concept of restorative justice, in which, ideally, both the victims of crime and those who commit crimes are restored, thereby restoring society. We hold that rehabilitation of offenders should be a goal of the justice system, along with the protection of society and the rights of victims. We understand that incarceration is sometimes needed to achieve these goals; however, we believe that rehabilitation should be the primary goal of incarceration and that vengeance should be no part of the justice system.
We are deeply concerned about the mandatory minimum sentencing law passed by our State Legislature in 1987, particularly as it relates to non-violent drug offenders. It ignores mitigating circumstances and, more importantly, does not allow for judicial discretion. Since 1987 the population of our State prison system has doubled, while the violent crime rate has decreased by 15%. Thirty-six per cent of the inmates are non-violent drug offenders sentenced under the mandatory minimum sentencing law. The cost of maintaining a prisoner is approximately $30,000 annually, which the state can ill afford in this time of budget crisis. By contrast, the cost of rehabilitation programs is approximately $7,000 annually. In our view the emphasis should be on rehabilitation, which would not only be more economical, but would also help restore both the offenders and society. Moreover, the money saved could be used to help establish drug courts in those counties in New Jersey where they do not exist.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
