Remarks of Michael J. Blee, Acting Administrative Director of the Courts, Before the Assembly Budget Committee

Good afternoon, Madam Chair Pintor Marin, Madam Vice chair Park, and other members of the Assembly Budget Committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Judiciary’s budget.

My name is Michael Blee. I am the new acting administrative director of the courts. I began my new role less than a week ago after serving as the assignment judge in Atlantic and Cape May counties. I have spent the past several decades working in just about every level and every corner of the justice system from private practice to prosecutor, to public defender, to solicitor for municipalities and planning boards. I served as a judge of the municipal court; family court, including as juvenile judge; as presiding judge of general equity; and in criminal court.

The opportunity to serve as administrative director is the greatest honor of my career, and I am incredibly grateful to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, someone I truly admire, for selecting me to assume this position of leadership in what I believe is the finest Judiciary in the nation.

I also want to thank my predecessor, Glenn Grant, who held this job for 16 years, for allowing me to shadow him for the past month and learn about the many divisions and programs and people that are supported by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

With me today are some of the leaders of the Judiciary: from Vicinage 14 in Ocean County, Assignment Judge Francis Hodgson; from Vicinage 7 in Mercer County, Assignment Judge Robert Lougy; from Vicinage 2 in Bergen County, Assignment Judge Carol Novey Catuogno; from Vicinage 13 in Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren counties, Assignment Judge Kevin Shanahan; and from Vicinage 5 in Essex County Assignment Judge Sheila Venable.

As administrative director, I will be guided by the same core principles that have been the trademark of New Jersey’s Judiciary for decades. Independence. Integrity. Fairness. Quality Service.

The public must have confidence that our court system will act impartially, free from external pressures. Our Judiciary must uphold the law and protect the rights of all individuals so that justice can be served.

A successful Judiciary fosters a spirit of collaboration – collaboration among the different divisions and court vicinages within the Judiciary, collaboration with the Bar, with various partners in the criminal justice system, and, perhaps most importantly, collaboration among the three branches of government.

I have great respect for this legislative body, the distinct and important roles played by each branch of government, and the partnership that exists between them. Government works best when all three branches work together. I pledge today to build upon that tradition of collaboration and cooperation for the benefit of the public.

Perhaps the most significant recent example of our three branches working together is Criminal Justice Reform. Now in its ninth year, CJR has become the model that other states follow. Our success is the result of the planning and communication that took place during its creation and our ability to work together, all three branches of government, to address new challenges. Together, we have created a stronger and fairer system than the one it replaced.

Last December, while in my previous role as assignment judge of the Atlantic and Cape May Vicinage, we held an event that brought together more than 100 stakeholders – judges, legislators, the county prosecutor and public defender, a local chief of police, and members of the bar – to talk about CJR and its successes and challenges. This type of dialogue and critical analysis continues across the state. We must ensure that our criminal justice system works to protect the rights of individuals and the safety of the public at large.

When it comes to issues of justice, the Judiciary is also guided by the axiom “Justice delayed is justice denied.” At its most basic level, our court system is responsible for resolving disputes - and it is our job as a court system to make sure disputes are resolved fairly, efficiently, and promptly.

One of our main goals is to reduce our backlog to pre-Covid levels. In the past fiscal year, the number of cases that have been resolved increased by 11.2 percent, lowering our total backlog by 21 percent. This is an improvement, but it falls short of our present goal. We look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature to fill judicial vacancies, which will help us reduce that backlog and provide timely justice for all.

I would now like to highlight a few programs that are helping to turn lives around while also improving public safety through long-term, commonsense strategies for rehabilitation and the reduction of recidivism.

My experience on the bench has taught me that rehabilitation and redemption must come from within the soul of the individual – but it also doesn’t happen if we are not directing individuals to the right resources and services.

Our Recovery Court program, formerly called Drug Court, has been helping individuals turn their lives around for years by providing the opportunity to confront addiction issues through rigorous treatment and supervision.

There are many ways to measure the success of the program. For example, we know that graduates improve their level of education or vocational training while in the program. We also know they are more likely to gain employment, acquire a driver’s license, or earn medical benefits. As the cycle of poverty is broken, recidivism declines. The re-arrest rate for individuals in their first three years after their release from state prison is 47 percent, compared to 14 percent for those in their first three years after graduation from recovery court. The difference in the re-incarceration rate is even more dramatic. Of those released from prison, 25 percent return to prison within three years, compared to only 2 percent for those who graduate from Recovery Court.

One of the frequent speakers at our Recovery Court graduations is Landon Hacker. At one point in his life, more than a decade ago, Landon was homeless, sleeping under the Ben Franklin Bridge in Camden, because of his drug addiction. After graduating from Recovery Court he went to college, a mile away from that bridge, at Rutgers University-Camden, where he graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Today he has his law license and is a staff attorney at the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, where he helps direct clients to the same types of services that once saved his life.

Due to the pandemic, we unfortunately saw the number of recovery court participants drop. I am happy to report that just this week we learned that the number of Recovery Court participants is back on the rise, having increased by more than 10 percent over the past fiscal year.

A natural extension of Recovery Court is the JOBS Program. To make a fresh start, you need to be clean and sober. But to stay clean and sober, you need employment.

The JOBS Program – Judiciary Opportunities for Building Success – began in the Atlantic/Cape May Vicinage. It is a partnership among the courts, government leaders, business leaders, and community organizations to help direct probationers and those who owe child support to job training, services, and employment. Participants have found work in the health care industry, the casino industry, retail, and higher education. As Chief Justice Rabner noted in our latest JOBS report, the program provides a pathway to stability, allowing participants to gain self-respect, financial independence, and a sense of purpose and hope.

Another example of a program that works to improve public safety is the Gun Violence Reduction Initiative, which offers an alternative path to low-risk defendants charged with gun possession crimes. The success rate for completing probation by participants in GVRI is 75 percent. The program provides greater supervision and links individuals to an array of services, often connecting them to educational opportunities, housing and jobs.

During this court year, there were a total of 688 clients in the initiative, including 193 juveniles. One juvenile client went on to get his high school diploma five months early and enrolled in trade school with assistance from his assigned mentor in the Youth Advocacy Program. He then secured a 35-hour per week job as an apprentice electrician. During a final home visit before the youth completed his probation, his mother expressed her gratitude to all involved for helping her son turn his life around.

Finally, I want to talk about one more issue that is important to the Judiciary and our ability to serve the public: transparency. In the past year, the Judiciary, under the leadership of Chief Justice Rabner and the Supreme Court, has taken major steps to make the work of the courts even more accessible to the press and to the public.

This past September, with a few commonsense exceptions, we began livestreaming appellate division hearings on the Judiciary website for the first time, just as we have done with Supreme Court hearings for years. We adopted new standards to provide greater access to court filings for matters argued in our appellate courts and our Supreme Court and we adopted a policy to allow for the livestreaming of more election-related hearings. We want citizens to be engaged and informed about what takes place in our courts.

We are proud of the work our judges and staff do each day, and we want the public to have the opportunity to see that work firsthand.

And with that, I again thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.