(Reuters) – New Jersey plans to release “low-risk” inmates serving county jail sentences to limit the spread of the coronavirus, making it the first state to take such a step, the governor said on Monday.
The announcement follows an order late Sunday night signed by Stuart Rabner, chief justice of the state’s supreme court, to suspend or commute sentences being served by inmates as a condition of probation or a municipal court conviction.
“We are the only state in America doing this,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told a regular news conference to update the public on the state’s response to the virus.
The move is being made to protect the health of inmates and limit the spread of the COVID-19 disease, state attorney general Gurbir Singh Grewal said.
“Jails can be incubators for disease so we have to take bold and drastic steps,” Grewal said.
People released will be subject to the state’s stay-at-home order and will serve their sentence once the health crisis is over, Grewal said.
Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; editing by Grant McCool