Brittan Holland v. Kelly Rosen

895 F.3d 272
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJuly 9, 2018
Docket17-3104
StatusPublished
Cited by137 cases

This text of 895 F.3d 272 (Brittan Holland v. Kelly Rosen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brittan Holland v. Kelly Rosen, 895 F.3d 272 (3d Cir. 2018).

Opinion

AMBRO, Circuit Judge

New Jersey's system of pretrial release has long relied on monetary bail to ensure the presence of an accused person at trial. State v. Robinson , 229 N.J. 44 , 160 A.3d 1 , 5 (2017). But in 2017, following an amendment to its Constitution, the New Jersey Criminal Justice Reform Act took effect. It replaced New Jersey's former monetary bail system with a new framework that prioritizes the use of non-monetary conditions of release over monetary bail to secure a criminal defendant's pretrial liberty.

Brittan Holland and Lexington National Insurance Corporation challenge this feature of the Reform Act as a violation of the Eighth Amendment, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. They seek a preliminary injunction enjoining Kelly Rosen, the Team Leader for Pretrial Services in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Mary E. Colalillo, the Camden County Prosecutor, and Christopher S. Porrino, the Attorney General of New Jersey, and their agents (for convenience we refer to the named officials and their agents collectively as the "State"), "from taking any actions to enforce statutory provisions [of the Reform Act] ... that allow imposition of severe restrictions on the pre-trial liberty of presumptively innocent criminal defendants without offering the option of monetary bail." Proposed Order of Plaintiffs Granting Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction at 2, Holland v. Rosen , 277 F.Supp.3d 707 (D.N.J. 2017) ( No. 17-4317 ).

After considering the standing of Holland and Lexington to bring suit, we conclude, as did the District Court (per Judge Simandle), that only the former may make the challenge here. On the merits, the question key to Holland's contentions is whether there is a federal constitutional right to deposit money or obtain a corporate surety bond to ensure a criminal defendant's future appearance in court as an equal alternative to non-monetary conditions of pretrial release. Our answer is no. Thus we affirm the District Court's comprehensive and well-reasoned ruling.

I. Background

A. New Jersey Pretrial Release and Detention Prior to the Criminal Justice Reform Act

Prior to the Reform Act, New Jersey's system of pretrial release relied heavily on the use of monetary bail, requiring defendants to post either cash or arrange with a third party a bond for their release. Robinson , 160 A.3d at 5 ; N.J. Att'y Gen. Law Enf't Dir. 2016-6, at 9 (2016) ("AG Dir. 2016-6"); Chief Justice Stuart Rabner et al. , Report of the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice 26 (2014) ("JCCJ Report"). Some defendants were released on personal recognizance (that is, undertaking a personal obligation to appear) or unsecured appearance bond (making a personal promise to pay, and sometimes obtaining a co-signor's promise to pay, a sum of money in the event of flight). See State v. Rice , 137 N.J.Super. 593 , 350 A.2d 95 , 99 (1975). For most, however, release on bail required the security of cash deposited with the court equal to the full amount of bail set, ten-percent cash bail, corporate surety bond, or property bond. JCCJ Report at 21-22. There was a presumption in favor of full cash bail for certain bail-restricted offenses. For most other offenses defendants were presumed to have a ten-percent cash bail option, id. at 22, which allowed them to deposit ten percent of the sum with the court and undertake a personal recognizance for the remainder. State v. Moncrieffe , 158 N.J.Super. 528 , 386 A.2d 886 , 887 (1978). Alternatively, defendants could post a corporate surety bond from an insurance company, which, after collecting a non-refundable fee from them and sometimes requiring collateral, executed a contract with the court and became responsible for the full amount of bail if the defendants failed to appear in court. JCCJ Report at 22. A final option was to post a property bond, for which defendants or their surety pledged real property, such as a deed to a house. Id. The court in setting bail was only authorized to consider the risk of flight of defendants and was not authorized to consider any danger they may have presented. AG Dir. 2016-6, at 9; JCCJ Report at 19.

In 2012 two organizations-the Drug Policy Alliance and Luminosity-studied New Jersey's county jails and found that 73.3% of those held in custody were awaiting trial, and 38.5% of the total jail population had the option to post bail but were in custody due only to their inability to meet the terms of bail. Marie VanNostrand, New Jersey Jail Population Analysis 11, 13 (2013) ("VanNostrand Report"). One in eight inmates-12% of the total population-was in custody because he or she could not pay $2,500 or less. 1 Id. at 13. The median length of stay for pretrial detainees was 314 days. Id. at 12.

The State took steps to address these inequities. Governor Christie called in 2012 for a constitutional amendment to allow for pretrial detention in serious cases. See Office of the Courts, Criminal Justice Reform: Annual Report to the Governor & Legislature 1 (2016). And in 2013 Chief Justice Rabner established the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice, "comprised of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, private counsel, court administrators[,] and staff from the Legislature and [the] Governor's office." JCCJ Report at 1.

In a March 2014 report the Committee examined the consequences of the State's then-current bail system and recommended a major change to its approach. Id. In practice, the State's reliance on monetary bail resulted in the release of defendants who could afford to pay for their release, even if they posed a substantial risk of flight or danger to others, and the pretrial detention of poorer defendants who presented minimal risk and were accused of less serious crimes. Id. at 1-2. The report, supported by extensive research, found significant consequences to pretrial custody: defendants detained in jail while awaiting trial pled guilty more often, were convicted more often, were sentenced to prison more often, and received harsher prison sentences, than those released before trial. Id.

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895 F.3d 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brittan-holland-v-kelly-rosen-ca3-2018.