TOMS RIVER-Let’s face it, most criminals and drug addicts don’t have long term financial planners and they live life payday to payday to survive. That’s not to say these criminals are not smart. In fact, they are very smart. They know how to get what they need, when they need and however they have to do it.
With changes in New Jersey’s bail reform, many who would be incarcerated until trial, you know those poor individuals who couldn’t make bail under the old system, are getting out of jail just hours after committing their crimes.
They committed those crimes out of necessity. According to local law enforcement authorities most of these criminals commit crimes out of necessity. The need for money to pay for drugs, or they need for money to pay rent. It’s what drives a large portion of the county’s criminals to commit the crimes they commit over and over again.
When they steal your jewelry, your stored away cash or electronics, they aren’t interested in having those items to improve their lives, they steal those items in the hopes of selling them for another heroin fix in most cases.
Criminals also know where to find the easy targets, Ocean County’s 125,000 strong senior population of 65 and overs. 27.7% of Ocean County’s total population are senior citizens.
Senior communities have long been the target of burglars looking for jewelry to pawn so they can get their daily heroin fix. They also know that seniors are a higher score for prescription medication.
In the old days, 2016, many of these criminals who act out of desperation would be held in jail on bail. It was to their benefit and the benefit of the law abiding community outside of jail.
Some say it’s not fair to hold these people in jail while they await trial, but today, the tables have turned. Now it’s not fair to the law abiding population that these individuals are immediately being returned to their communities to commit more crimes.
It has been proven very early on that bail reform isn’t working. Criminals and addicts so desperate for money are being released because a computer says so and because a judge receives a pinky promise from the defendant. That’s all that protects Ocean County’s senior citizens in 2013, a computerized grading system and a promise to not commit more crime and to return to court like a good citizen should.
Except, they’re not going to return to court. They’re not going to stop committing crimes, because in most cases, it’s beyond their own physical and mental control.
While Ocean County’s judges continue this revolving door, they’re only thinking about the rights of the criminals and not the rights of the county’s law abiding residents…especially the senior citizens who are the easy prey for these individuals.
Related stories:
https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2017/02/how-shore-area-legislators-voted-on-latest-bail-reform-funding-bill/
https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2017/02/ocean-county-freeholder-joe-vicari-throw-out-bail-reform-and-start-over/
