The law heightens penalties for home burglaries in what officials said is a bid to deter property crime in New Jersey. (Rich Hundley III/Governor’s Office)
Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed a bipartisan bill increasing penalties for burglaries in the state in a bid to deter home invasions.
The legislation, which unanimously cleared the Assembly and passed the Senate with a single no vote from Sen. Britnee Timberlake (D-Essex), upgrades penalties for residential burglaries and allows juveniles charged in home invasions involving firearms to be tried as adults.
“This is tough, tough medicine,” Murphy said at the bill signing ceremony in Edison. “All of these reforms will help make our criminal justice system more responsive to meaningful threats, support our continued efforts to restore the public’s trust in that system, and at the same time making our communities safer.”
The bill creates a new criminal charge of home invasion burglary that would see offenders jailed for between 10 and 20 years. There will be a minimum 85% term of parole ineligibility for burglars who harm, threaten to harm, or are armed during the course of a home invasion.
A separate residential burglary charge created by the bill carries jail sentences of between five and 10 years for offenders who commit a residential burglary unarmed, with the same period of parole ineligibility unless the suspect can prove by a preponderance of evidence that no one was in the home at the time of the crime.
Bill sponsor Sen. Tony Bucco (R-Morris) said the heightened penalties are in part meant to prevent post-traumatic stress that often follows home burglaries.
Sen. Tony Bucco (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
“They say your home is your castle, but it can’t be your castle if you’re afraid to be there,” he said. “And for those who are victims of these heinous crimes, it’s traumatic and it lasts. This doesn’t go away after the incident is over. You live it on a daily basis.”
The bill, which took effect immediately after being signed, allows juveniles charged under either of the new offenses to be tried as adults. It also adds residential burglaries to the list of offenses that can bar those convicted of receiving certain professional licenses in the state.
Under prior law, the state’s burglary statute made no distinction between residential home invasions and burglaries targeting businesses or other spaces and permitted jail terms of up to five years, or between five and 10 years for burglaries involving weapons or violence.
Civil rights and criminal justice reform groups opposed the legislation, warning it would enable mass incarceration even as crime rates declined.
“By increasing criminal penalties for certain burglary charges, this bill will only serve to further fuel mass incarceration and funnel young people into the criminal legal system,” said Sarah Fajardo, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. “Reports show that burglaries have been on a steady decline in New Jersey in recent years — it’s past time for the Legislature to adopt data-driven solutions that prioritize humanity over punishment.”
Though New Jersey burglaries have fallen over the last decade — from 31,658 in 2014 to 13,422 last year, according to FBI crime statistics — they have climbed in the years following the pandemic.
Uniform crime statistics submitted to the New Jersey State Police recorded 11,258 burglaries in 2021 and 13,377 in 2022, a nearly 19% increase.
Officials said the steeper penalties would drive down property crimes by serving as a deterrent to would-be home invaders.
“I hope today sends a strong message to anybody out there who’s thinking about committing one of these crimes, understand this: That if you commit the crime, our law enforcement personnel will catch you, our prosecutors will prosecute you, and you will spend time in jail as a result of this legislation,” Bucco said.
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