New Jersey has adopted new Court Rules which affect the Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) application and admission process for people charged with criminal offenses.
PTI is a diversionary program which allows eligible defendants charged with indictable offenses (commonly called “felonies”) to comply with supervision and rehabilitation prior to trial. Participants who successfully complete the program can have their criminal charges dismissed without a conviction. Supervision generally lasts between one and three years, and includes conditions such as reporting to a Probation officer, refraining from additional violations, seeking and maintaining employment, random drug testing, participating in substance abuse treatment, and paying restitution to any victims.
The new Rules creates several categories of PTI applications and set forth how each category will be considered, including:
- Ineligible for PTI. PTI is not available to defendants who have previously participated in PTI or other diversionary programs, have been convicted of a first- or second- degree indictable offense, or have been sentenced to confinement for any level of indictable offense.
- Ineligible for PTI without the Prosecutor’s consent. These include offenses that carry a presumption of incarceration or a mandatory minimum period of incarceration, as well as defendants who were previously convicted of a third-or fourth-degree offense without jail time. The prosecutor must review and consent to these applications before they can begin the standard review process with the criminal manager’s office.
- Presumption against admission into PTI. Public officers or employees charged with an offense touching on their office and defendants charged with domestic violence offenses are presumed to be ineligible for PTI. However, the defendant’s attorney can submit to the criminal manager’s office with the application a written statement setting forth the “extraordinary and compelling circumstances” of a particular case to rebut the presumption.
A defense attorney’s advocacy is especially critical in the latter two categories. For applications which require the prosecutor’s consent, the prosecutor is not required to consider any facts favorable to the defendant which are not included in the application. Likewise, applications which are presumptively inadmissible must overcome a high bar to meet the “extraordinary and compelling” standard. An experienced criminal defense attorney can help assess a defendant’s application and advocate effectively for admission into PTI.
Furthermore, defendants whose PTI applications have been denied, either by the prosecutor or the criminal case manager’s office, can appeal the denials to the Court. However, very specific and exacting standards apply to such appeals. An experienced criminal defense attorney can best assess the likelihood of success and zealously advocate such appeals.
The new Rules were adopted by the New Jersey Supreme Court on September 15, 2017, and take effect on July 1, 2018.