LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE

ASSEMBLY, No. 5905

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

DATED: DECEMBER 19, 2025

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis:

Requires Judiciary and law enforcement to notify State Parole Board when parolee violates domestic violence restraining order.

Type of Impact:

One-time expenditure increase to the State

Agencies Affected:

The Judiciary, State Parole Board, County Prosecutors.

 

 

Office of Legislative Services Estimate

Fiscal Impact

 

One-Time 

 

 

State Expenditure Increase

 

Indeterminate

 

 

 

·       The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that this bill will primarily result in a one-time indeterminate increase in State expenditures.  The domestic violence central registry is not publicly accessible and the Administrative Office of the Courts may incur some upfront information technology costs to provide the State Parole Board access to the database.  However, the OLS does not have sufficient information to quantify the magnitude of the expenditure increase. 

·       The Administrative Office of the Courts and the State Parole Board could also experience some ongoing administrative costs related to their responsibilities under the bill.

 

BILL DESCRIPTION

 

      This bill requires the Judiciary and law enforcement agencies to notify the State Parole Board when a parolee violates a domestic violence restraining order.  The bill establishes procedures for reflecting a person’s status as a parolee in the domestic violence central registry and requires the Judiciary and relevant law enforcement agency to notify the State Parole Board when a parolee is charged with a violation.

      Under current law, the Administrative Office of the Courts is required to maintain a domestic violence central registry of any person who has had a domestic violence restraining order entered against them, who has been charged with a crime or offense involving domestic violence, and who has been charged with a violation of a court order involving domestic violence.  Current law, however, does not establish procedures for notifying the State Parole Board when a parolee is charged with violating a domestic violence restraining order.

      Under the bill, the State Parole Board is required to notify the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Administrative Office of the Courts is required to update the registry to reflect that a person in the registry is currently serving a term of parole supervision. To facilitate this notification process, the bill authorizes the State Parole Board to access the registry to determine if a parolee is the subject of a domestic violence restraining order or has been charged with a violation of a court order involving domestic violence.  The State Parole Board is also required to notify the Administrative Office of the Courts when the term of parole supervision has terminated.  

      The State Parole Board is required to indicate in the parole report, which is required to be filed with the board panel prior to an inmate’s parole eligibility date, whether the person is the subject of a domestic violence restraining order.  The bill also requires, when a person is charged with violating a domestic violence restraining order, the law enforcement agency or prosecutor, and the Judiciary to notify the State Parole Board that a parolee has violated a domestic violence restraining order.

 

 

FISCAL ANALYSIS

 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

 

        None received.

 

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES

 

      The OLS finds that this bill will primarily result in a one-time indeterminate increase in State expenditures.  The domestic violence central registry is not publicly accessible and the Administrative Office of the Courts may incur some upfront information technology costs to provide the State Parole Board access to the database. However, the OLS does not have sufficient information to quantify the magnitude of the expenditure increase. Also, there could be some additional technical and administrative work from the bill’s provision requiring the Administrative Office of the Courts to update the registry to reflect that a person in the registry is currently serving a term of parole supervision.

      The bill requires the Judiciary and law enforcement agency to notify the State Parole Board when a parolee violates a domestic violence restraining order. The OLS, however, has no further information on how many parolees could potentially be in violation of these orders.  In response to an FY 2026 OLS Discussion Point, the Judiciary noted that 33,280 domestic violence related temporary restraining orders were granted in 2022, out of which 4,809 were then granted a final restraining order, with no further indication as to how many of these individuals were under parole supervision.

      The bill requires the State Parole Board to notify the Administrative Office of the Courts that a person in the registry is currently serving a term of parole supervision.  The parole board is required to indicate in the parole report, which is required to be filed with the board panel prior to an inmate’s parole eligibility date, whether the person is the subject of a domestic violence restraining order.  The State Parole Board is also required to notify the Administrative Office of the Courts when the term of parole supervision has terminated. There could be some additional administrative costs associated from these provisions for the State Parole Board.

Section:

Judiciary

Analyst:

Anuja Pande Joshi

Senior Fiscal Analyst

Approved:

Thomas Koenig

Legislative Budget and Finance Officer

 

 

This legislative fiscal estimate has been produced by the Office of Legislative Services due to the failure of the Executive Branch to respond to our request for a fiscal note.

 

This fiscal estimate has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67 (C.52:13B-6 et seq.).