New Jersey DOC to Allow Inmate Interviews

NEWARK, New Jersey — Following criticism from the New Jersey Press Association and other groups, the state’s Department of Corrections reversed its five-month-old policy that banned members of the press from interviewing inmates.

Department officials say that they will now consider interview requests on a case-by-case basis and inmates will be allowed to put reporters on their lists for collect phone calls, provided that they will not be calling 800 numbers, cell phones or be switched to an extension.

The decision to rescind the policy came after a report in the Star-Ledger newspaper stated that the agency’s restrictions on interviews were among the most rigid in the country.

Under the former policy, reporters could not schedule interviews, visit with inmates or receive collect calls from prisoners.

Critics of the restrictions say that they violated the public’s right to know what was taking place in a public institution.

Reporters can now visit with inmates, but for security reasons are prohibited from bringing a pad and paper inside facilities.

The department will retain the right to grant or deny interview requests at officials’ discretion, in accordance with U.S. Supreme Court rulings that addressed the same issue in the 1970s.