Also at the state house today, lawmakers chipped away at the judicial vacancy that's been dogging the state.

The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed seven new judges to the superior court to replace members of the bench who've retired.

That leaves the statewide vacancy at 48, down from the record high of 67 a year ago.

The committee today also heard from critics and proponents of the state's criminal justice reform measures, most commonly known as bail reform, which has been blamed recently for upticks in certain crimes, even as the overall crime rate drops.

Ted Goldberg reports from Trenton.

In the seven years since New Jersey instituted bail reform, prosecutors and court officials say it's done its intended job of keeping fewer people in jail because they can't afford bail.

Nearly 12% of New Jersey County jail population or one out of eight individuals were remaining in custody because they could not afford to post bail of $25 or less.

By October 7th of 2020, that number had decreased to 0.2%.

This legislation helps address inequities in the criminal justice system and prevents individuals accused of low level crimes from remaining jailed strictly because they cannot afford monetary bail.

Glenn Grant is the administrative director of the courts in New Jersey.

He gave New Jersey's bail reform a B-minus grade, saying it could always be better while insisting there's no widespread evidence of people re-offending when out on bail.

If you are looking to try to get 100% certainty that no one out on pretrial release will not commit an offense, the only option is to lock up everybody.

While that's not a real option, the state Senate Judiciary Committee listen to suggestions for how bail reform can be tweaked.

There should be a presumption of detention for certain firearms possession charges.

This is also true for young defendants charged with firearms offenses because they're being released as a result of a low PSA score.

The absence of support often has a detrimental effect since defendants may return to the same environment that drew them into their court involvement.

NJ Reentry Corporation head and Jersey City mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey says he initially opposed bail reform because there weren't enough resources to help people after they got arrested.

Now he's pushing for laws that would provide more lifelines for anyone out on bail.

When bail reform was first instituted.

I said, without these services, we're just expecting an irrational outcome.

Some senators were skeptical about the formula used to tell judges if someone should be out on bail.

Part of that formula is the convictions on someone's record, but not what they were initially charged with.

Come on, Judge.

With all due respect, that's sort of a farce, right?

You're if you arrest somebody for agg assault with a gun and the prosecutors office pleads it down to possession without a permit.

That's the state.

That's the data that's being kept.

That defendant should not be penalized because the state has now shown that they're not able to proceed with that larger charge, if you will.

Other senators are looking for other tweaks.

I'm convinced that people who do these crimes are well-educated on the risks.

So the immediate solution this legislature could do in a day, they could either raise the level of the offense or impose minimum mandatory jail time.

While Senator Troy Singleton reminded everyone that there's been no permanent spike in crime since bail reform was implemented.

There's a lot of talk about New Jersey almost being awash in crime.

New Jersey's statistics when it comes to the number of shootings dropped in calendar year 2022 when the data was there by a significant amount.

The number of auto theft dropped as well.

Judges do have the discretion to keep someone in jail in spite of the formula.

An amendment to New Jersey's bail reform law has exceptions.

If a judge thinks someone poses a threat to others, might skip out on trial or could obstruct the criminal justice process.

In Trenton.

I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.