Connect with us

New Jersey

Murphy was a clemency hero. Sherrill has to step up for NJ | Opinion

Published

on

Murphy was a clemency hero. Sherrill has to step up for NJ | Opinion



3-minute read

Advertisement
play

As we close the curtain on Gov. Phil Murphy’s tenure, he leaves behind some big shoes for Gov. Mikie Sherill to step into as her term begins. I often speak with government officials as part of my work who are wary of using their powers to give incarcerated people second chances due to their fear of political blowback. While it would have been easy for Murphy to sit on the sidelines, instead he followed through on his promises to expand access to pardons across the state and help alleviate the collateral consequences of past criminal convictions.

Murphy granted 307 people clemency under his administration — more people than all of New Jersey’s governors in the last three decades combined. We now look to Sherill to continue that good work, because there’s still so much more to be done.

New Jersey must keep making progress on clemency

Advertisement

Despite how successful New Jersey has been in cutting its incarcerated population in half over the past 15 years, this state still has the most racially disparate prison population in the nation. Not only that, New Jersey Department of Corrections’ data shows about 22% of the state prison population is aged 50 or older, which is a drastic increase from just 13% a decade ago. Increased medical costs associated with the aging of New Jersey’s prison population costs the state up to $2 million each year per person, without even including the $300,000 in wages that go to corrections officers. New Jersey must take common sense action to return elderly incarcerated people to their communities and unburden the corrections system from the weight of unnecessarily incarcerating this population. 

Sherill already has tools at her disposal from day one to do something about this. Clemency is an extremely powerful tool that can be utilized to address past and current injustices, safely reduce the prison population, save taxpayer money, and return much-needed mentors to our communities. In fact, clemency is enshrined in the state constitution as a power that provides the governor with broad discretion to grant pardons and commutations to people with criminal convictions. This power is at its most useful when applied to people whose continued criminal convictions or sentences of incarceration no longer serve the interest of justice and are no longer in the interest of public safety for New Jersey’s communities — which is a perfect description for the people aging in our prisons, as recidivism and reincarceration rates for those over 60 in the state has been found to be as low as 3%.

Murphy leaves behind a strong legacy of mercy and justice that will forever define his years in office. Now Sherrill has an opportunity to continue that legacy by building on Murphy’s clemency initiative and the strong foundation he established. This commitment will help ensure New Jersey continues to set the standard for safely reducing prison populations and that we continue the work to help balance the scales of justice while preserving public safety.

Celeste Trusty is state legislative affairs director for FAMM. She previously served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons.

Advertisement



Source link

New Jersey

Monmouth County hospital among World’s Best Hospitals for 2026

Published

on

Monmouth County hospital among World’s Best Hospitals for 2026


play

Hospitals are an important need in the world.

And finding a facility with high-quality medical care that’s reliable is also important.

Advertisement

Newsweek, the premier news magazine and website, has partnered with Statista to release a dependable guidance list of the World’s Best Hospitals – United States for 2026.

In it’s eight year, these ranking highlights the leading hospitals around the globe so readers can find information tailored to their needs and location the report stated.

Each hospital was reviewed and given a score based on four data sources: recommendations from medical experts; hospital quality metrics, existing patient experience data and Statista’s Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Implementation Survey. 

In typical New Jersey fashion, the Garden State makes the list among the 2,500 hospitals that were evaluated this year.

Advertisement

Nine hospitals from the Garden State made the list with one representing Monmouth County. With an overall score of 61.79% and the Infection Prevention Award, Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch made the top 9 list for roster in World’s Best Hospitals 2026 from Newsweek.

World’s Best Hospitals 2026 in New Jersey

  • No. 53: Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center in Morristown; overall score: 70.74%
  • No. 56: Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack; overall score: 70.07%
  • No. 134: The Valley Hospital in Paramus; overall score: 65.36%
  • No. 186: Atlantic Health Overlook Medical Center in Summit; overall score: 64.42%
  • No. 254: Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood; overall score: 63.13%
  • No. 320: Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick; overall score: 62.26%
  • No. 364: Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark; overall score: 61.82%
  • No. 366: Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center in Plainsboro; overall score: 61.80%
  • No. 367: Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch; overall score: 61.79%



Source link

Continue Reading

New Jersey

Newly released body cam footage shows response to massive industrial explosion in Gloucester County

Published

on

Newly released body cam footage shows response to massive industrial explosion in Gloucester County


LOGAN TWP., N.J. (WPVI) — Newly released body camera footage gives us a first look at the heroic actions of first responders on the scene of a massive industrial explosion in Gloucester County earlier this month.

The explosion happened at an industrial facility in Logan Township, New Jersey, on March 4 and left several workers injured.

The initial blast could be heard miles away.

Now, we are getting a look at the frantic rush to help in the moments after it happened.

Advertisement

New details released after massive explosion at Logan Twp., New Jersey factory

In the footage, you can hear the police officers frantically trying to locate people who were injured by the blast at Savita Naturals.

Large propane tanks burned in the background as rescuers tried to account for any survivors.

At one point, first responders are seen running inside the building to look for people. You can see damaged walls and debris everywhere.

Four people were injured in the blast, with one of them being thrown off the roof and into the woods near the water tower.

Advertisement

Amazingly, the worker was found alive by a fence. He was badly burned, but able to talk.

First responders had to load him in a truck and get him to the road, where a Logan Township officer tried to keep him calm as they waited for an ambulance.

Body cam video shows an officer calling the man’s wife to let her know he was alive.

That officer stayed by his side until he was finally loaded into a police car and rushed to the hospital.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.

Advertisement

Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

New Jersey

How hunters are helping to feed those in need throughout New Jersey

Published

on

How hunters are helping to feed those in need throughout New Jersey


play

For more than 25 years, hunters around the Garden State have been making a difference by working with Hunters Helping the Hungry, a nonprofit organization that raises money and coordinates the efforts of hunters, butchers, and food banks throughout New Jersey to help put food on the table for those in need.

The program began during the 1997/1998 hunting season, a result of the efforts of three Hunterdon County hunters along with help from a butcher named John Person and Kathy Rummel, the director at the time of Norwescap.

Advertisement

“We started out 25 years ago just as hunters, you know, wanting to go out and get some extra deer. New Jersey had very liberal deer quotas and bag limits. You could get unlimited does,” said Lester Giese, one of the founders of Hunters Helping the Hungry. “I was on a trip, and I was going through West Virginia, and I saw at one of the gas stations a brochure for Hunters Helping the Hungry. I picked up the brochure and looked at it and said, ‘What a great idea.’ When I got back, as it turned out, the state legislature just recently passed a law to allow venison donations.”

Five deer were donated during that first season, according to Giese. Today, the organization averages about 1,000 donations per year, which amounts to between 23,000 and 28,000 pounds of venison, he said.

Overall, since the program’s inception, Hunters Helping the Hungry has facilitated the donation of nearly 2.5 million servings of venison.

While the program originally started as a way to assist hunters who could harvest more deer than they could use, the organization’s mission has expanded. According to its website, Hunters Helping the Hungry currently aims to:

Advertisement

  • Continue paying butchering costs for hunters who are able to take more deer than they can use;
  • Support municipal and private property owners that pay for the butchering process directly while they attempt to reduce the deer population on their property;
  • And set aside a portion of grants from the state Department of Agriculture to support and pay for the butchering of deer taken by farmers and their agents during depredation hunts.

These efforts ultimately help New Jersey’s food bank system and provide a source of protein to those in need, while also keeping the state’s deer herd in check

“So, kind of a nutshell, we started out just a small group of us with a small focus,” Giese said. “And now we’re trying to do a lot of things for a lot of people.”

The process: From forest to food pantry

In New Jersey the deer hunting season runs from the second week of September through the second week of February. According to Hunters Helping the Hungry board member Mark Charbonneau, this is one of the longest hunting seasons in the United States.

Hunters who want to make a donation bring their legally harvested deer to one of the state-inspected butchers that partner with the organization. Processing fees are paid to the butcher by Hunters Helping the Hungry from a fund consisting of donations and grants.

Advertisement

The butcher processes the deer at no cost to the hunter and gives it to one of the participating food banks, such as Norwescap, which partners with pantries in Warren, Sussex, and Hunterdon counties.

Venison issued to the food banks is distributed to over 400 charities around the state.

Although New Jersey’s deer hunting season starts in the fall, Charbonneau, a board member of about 20 years and a hunter of about 40, says that the process starts well beforehand.

“The process actually starts before hunting season starts. What I mean by that is hunters will start scouting certain locations to be able to know where deer are, to be able to prepare to harvest them legally and as ethically and quickly as possible,” said Charbonneau, adding that less than 2% of the New Jersey population are deer hunters.

Charbonneau continued, “So when you start that process of scouting areas, setting up your locations, then going afield, then harvesting your game, then removing your game from the field, then field dressing it properly, then bringing it to a butcher, then making that donation, there’s a lot of steps involved and there’s a lot of time involved.”

Advertisement

JB Person, an Hunters Helping the Hungry board member and the owner of GameButcher in Lebanon, is one of several participating butchers that process the donated deer.

“What the hunters do is come here, they have to fill out some paperwork, and along with the paperwork we request they also fill out a donation slip. They donate the whole deer,” Person said. “What we do is skin it and process it into various cuts – roast, steak, chops, and ground meat. Everything is cut, wrapped, and frozen and then when we have a bunch ready to go, I get in touch with Norwescap and then they come and pick it up.”

Game Butchers averages between 150 and 200 donated deer per year, according to Person, who added that Hunters Helping the hungry is “in desperate need of butchers.”

How to donate deer to Hunters Helping the Hungry

Hunters looking to make a donation can take their legally harvested deer to any of the participating butchers listed on the Hunters Helping the Hungry website.

Advertisement

Once the required forms have been filled out, the butcher will process the deer. The food bank will then pick up the processed deer from the butcher and distribute the frozen venison to various food pantries, emergency shelters, churches, etc.

If the dressed weight of the deer is more than 50 pounds, Hunters Helping the Hungry will pay the entire processing fee, according to the organization’s website. If the dressed weight of the deer is less than 50 pounds, the hunter will be required to pay the first $50 of the processing fee.

Throughout the 2025/2026 hunting season, a total of 802 deer were donated to Hunters Helping the Hungry. This amounts to 26,846 pounds of venison which yields 107,384 servings.

“The number one thing that people need to know about our organization is that the hunters of the great state of New Jersey are the reason for our success,” Charbonneau said. “The hunters have taken it upon themselves in the great state of New Jersey to go afield every year and harvest game to help those not as fortunate as most.”

For additional information about Hunters Helping the Hungry and how you can donate and/or get involved as a hunter or a butcher, visit the organization’s website at https://www.huntershelpingthehungry.org/.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending