SENATE LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3896

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 19, 2025

      The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3896.

      As amended and reported by the committee, this bill amends current law to require a recommendation of no pretrial release if the court finds probable cause that the eligible defendant committed any crime involving the use or possession of a firearm.

      Under P.L.2014, c.31, also known as the Criminal Justice Reform (CJR) Law, criminal courts are authorized to order the pretrial release of a defendant pending further proceedings, or order pretrial detention of a defendant who is found to be a flight risk, a danger to another or the community, or likely to obstruct further criminal proceedings. Pretrial detention determinations are based on a risk assessment conducted by the Pretrial Services Program, which assesses each eligible defendant detained on a complaint-warrant and makes recommendations to the court as to an appropriate pretrial release decision.

      Currently, the CJR Law establishes a rebuttable presumption for some form of pretrial release, except with respect to an eligible defendant charged with murder, a crime for which the eligible defendant would be subject to an ordinary or extended term of life imprisonment. In addition, current law requires Pretrial Services to recommend no release when a defendant has been charged with certain offenses involving the use or possession of a firearm, commonly referred to as “Graves Act” offenses. However, current law excludes certain Graves Act offenses from Pretrial Service’s mandatory no release recommendation. Those excluded offenses consist of: possession of any destructive device or defaced firearm; possession of a firearm with an unlawful purpose; possession of a firearm that is transferred among, between, or within an association of two or more people, known as a “community gun”; possession of a firearm while committing certain offenses involving a controlled dangerous substance or a crime of bias intimidation; or unlawful possession of handguns, rifles, or shotguns. 

      Under the amended bill, the Graves Act exceptions under current law are eliminated.  When a motion for pretrial detention is filed, a pretrial recommendation of no release may constitute prima facie evidence to overcome the presumption of release if the court finds probable cause that the eligible defendant committed any crime involving the use or possession of a firearm.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      (1) clarify that Pretrial Services is required to recommend no release of a defendant charged with any crime involving the use or possession of a firearm by removing references to the section of the CJR Law that modify the components of the Pretrial Services Risk Assessment Instrument and, instead, amend the sections of the CJR Law that require Pretrial Services to recommend no release of a defendant faced with these crimes; and

      (2) require that, when a motion for pretrial detention is filed, a pretrial recommendation of no release may constitute prima facie evidence to overcome the presumption of release if the court finds probable cause that the eligible defendant committed any crime involving the use or possession of a firearm. As introduced, certain offenses involving the use or possession of a firearm did not require a recommendation of no release; the amendments eliminate those exceptions.