Inside the courtyard at Northern State Prison in Newark. (Jon Naso | Star-Ledger file photo)

By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

TRENTON—The big house is getting smaller.

Fewer people are going to prison in New Jersey these days and the numbers continue to drop, according to an analysis of state Department of Corrections data over the past five years.

Those incarcerated in New Jersey—including men and women in prison, juveniles in detention, and detainees still in halfway houses—dropped this year to 19,619, from 21,123 in 2013. That marked a decline of more than 15 percent.

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In fact, the state's inmate population has fallen more from its peak in the 1990s than any other state in the country, according to The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based criminal justice reform group.

Since 1999—when more than 31,000 people were behind bars in New Jersey—the number of inmates has plunged by more than a third.

"New Jersey leads the nation in prison population reduction," said Todd Clear, a prison policy expert at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice.

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The big drop

Crime has been going down in New Jersey in recent years. But that doesn’t really tell the story of what's happening in the state's prisons, according to Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project.

"It's not necessarily one shift that can produce a shift of this magnitude," he said, attributing much of it to the creation of the state's drug courts that focus on diverting people from prison, as well as changes in the parole system that make it less likely someone will be put back behind bars for minor technical violations of their parole.

The corrections department data underscores the impact on how the state treats drug crime. The percentage of those serving time for drug crime is down more significantly than for inmates convicted of any other offense.

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East Jersey State Prison and the Special Treatment Unit for sexually violent predators.

(Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Where the numbers shrank most

New Jersey’s Department of Corrections operates 12 major institutions, including 7 that house adult men, one for women, three for youth offenders and an intake unit.

Most of those in custody are men and that is where there were the largest declines in inmate populations:

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Violent offenses

Overall, the number of male inmates incarcerated for violent offenses dropped by 6.2 percent.

2013: 9,202 inmates

2017: 8,636 inmates

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Sexual assault

2013: 880 inmates

2017: 854 inmates

3 percent reduction*

*All numbers represent male adult offenders

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Kidnap charges

2013: 233 inmates

2017: 215 inmates

7.7 percent reduction

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Robbery

2013: 3,007 inmates

2017: 2,626 inmates

12.7 percent reduction

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Assault

2013: 1,347 inmates

2017: 1,055 inmates

21.7 percent reduction

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(South Jersey Times file photo)

Property crimes*

2013: 1,559 inmates

2017: 1,036 inmates

33.6 percent reduction

*Property offenses include burglary, arson, theft, forgery, embezzlement and receiving or possessing stolen property.

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Public policy offenses*

2013: 596 inmates

2017: 395 inmates

33.7 percent reduction

*Includes racketeering, gambling, corruption, perjury, escape, bail jumping, juvenile and family related offenses, and conspiracy.

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Drug charges

2013: 2,687 inmates

2017: 1,660 inmates

38.2 percent reduction

Where the numbers went up:

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(Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Homicide

2013: 3,301 inmates

2017: 3,307 inmates

.2 percent increase

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Weapons*

2013: 977 inmates

2017: 1,091 inmates

11.7 percent increase

*Weapons offenses include possession and operation

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New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. (Martin Griff | The Times of Trenton file photo)

Behind the numbers

Crime is down nationwide, but no other state has matched New Jersey’s decline in prison population, said Clear.

"New Jersey is a significant story," remarked the Rutgers criminologist.

Part of that story, he said, involved the reform of the state’s parole policies more than a decade ago aimed at cutting the number of people being returned to prison for technical violations of their parole. Instead of sending them back, they would be sent to workshops to address the issue that got them in trouble.

"That cut returns to prison by about half," said Clear. "It was an extremely successful, innovative strategy.

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The drug problem

The creation of the state's drug courts also helped, he added, siphoning off non-violent first timers who otherwise would have gone to jail.

According to corrections department officials, a five-year phase-in under Gov. Chris Christie of mandatory drug courts for non-violent offenders, which was expanded to all 21 counties across the state, redirected thousands from state prison and into drug treatment programs.

At the same time, they credited the so-called "ban the box" legislation prohibiting employers from discriminating against people with expunged criminal records, as well as accelerating some expungements, increasing the type of convictions that can be expunged and reducing the waiting period to expunge an entire juvenile record, have given some inmates a better opportunity of finding a job and staying out of prison.

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Murder and other violent crimes

Wayne Fisher, former chairman of the New Jersey Police Training Commission and senior policy advisor to the Police Institute at Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, said the drop in the state’s prison population has been far less among violent offenders.

"They live longer in the system," he explained. "Who stays in prison the longest? Homicide offenders and those charged in sexual assaults."

But for most other crimes, he said it's a function of sentencing and parole policy.

Clear, though, said there is no reason why New Jersey couldn't cut its prison population by 50 percent "by looking in a serious and smart way" at long sentences.

Inmates in their 50s and 60s, even if they committed serious crimes when they were young, do not represent the danger to the community, he asserted.

"Locking up people in their 50s and 60s when they represent no threat makes no sense," Clear said.

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Mid-State Correctional Facility, which was reopened this year as a prison dedicated to treating drug-addicted inmates. (Bill Duhart | For NJ .com)

The impact on the state

Department of Corrections officials said with the decline in inmate population, they have consolidated facilities and closed some units, reducing overtime costs.

"This practice allowed us to undertake much-needed renovations in our facilities," said spokesman Matthew Schuman. "In fact, as part of our consolidation program, we closed Mid-State Correctional Facility in June 2014."

Mid-State reopened in April 2017 as the first licensed, clinically driven drug treatment program provided by the NJDOC. At the same time, a similar substance use disorder program for female offenders became operational at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.

This summer, the department also closed its Ancora Unit, a minimum custody unit on the grounds of the Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Hammonton.

"There were no employee layoffs as a result of the closure," he said. The approximately 250 inmates housed in the unit were moved to minimum custody settings in other department of correction facilities.

While the number of NJDOC employees has been reduced, he said the reductions were accomplished without staff layoffs.

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A snapshot of who's behind bars

According to the Department of Corrections 61 percent of all the state’s inmates were imprisoned for violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, aggravated and simple assault, robbery, kidnapping, and other sex offenses.

Drug offenders represented 15 percent of the state's inmates. They included individuals charged with possession, sale and distribution.

The median term for inmates in the state prisons is 6 years. Nearly four in 10 were sentenced to 10 years or more. Just over 1,000 are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole eligibility.

Eighty will die in prison, serving life sentences without parole.

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Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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