the Murphy Administration has made systemic changes over the last seven years to reform the way that young people interact with law enforcement in New Jersey as one part of that effort the state announced in 2017 that two Youth detention facilities would close the New Jersey training school from male juveniles and the female Secure Care and intake facility and that begs the question what should happen with those spaces while as part of the broader reform Effort New Jersey's attorney general Matt plaen announced today that his office is creating a new working group called the youth Justice working group to determine the best use of those two centers and to work towards what he calls a more affirmative vision for our children attorney general plaen is here now to explain attorney general great to have you with us tonight uh what can you tell me about this working group in particular how you plan to take their perspective on on things like decisions around closing the facility and what comes next with it well we've made tremendous progress in New Jersey on youth Justice both in terms of how we provide opportunities to our youngest residents and also how we keep our state safe and uh this goes back now several years uh dating back to 2017 when the initial announcement of funding to build new Secure Care facilities and the closure of Hayes in Jamesburg was announced supported throughout his administration by Governor Murphy and now we are in the final stages of that and we want to listen to communities that have been affected about how we can learn from the history of this sites a rich history was once the site in Bordentown of a school of excellence for black kids how we can listen to these communities as we think about how these facilities can be repurposed for the Next Generation who are some of the voices that will sit on this working group um let's start there uh it includes a diverse range of perspectives it includes our of course our Juvenile Justice Commission Representatives my office uh will be represented Advocates like the institute for social justice and salvation and social justice who have been part of the advocacy on this work for for many years it includes people with Rich ties to the sites that we're talking about including the granddaughter of the of the Reverend who founded the school uh in Bordentown um and includes another a number of other youth Justice Advocates and will of course grow and expand as we do this work but the idea here is to provide recommendations to the administration and to the governor and to me as to how we can use these facilities in ways that provides more opportunity for our kids so there there are two pieces of this right one is how you repurpose those old centers and the other is the new facilities that you mentioned that are going to be built just talk talk us through those new facilities and how they're going to be different yeah and those facilities come out of a recommendation from a task force that the governor stood up in 2018 and the results were announced anounced by the late great lieutenant governor Sheila Oliver back in 2022 and these are smaller facilities uh that are designed based on best practices from across the country to ensure that the relatively few young people who we have in our custody are provided every opportunity to get their life back on track and succeed um there are facilities that will be smaller closer to home and again built on best practices uh and that work is well underway you mentioned the people that you have in custody and it's a point that's raised some criticism from law enforcement and others around the state who say that young people right now are feeling emboldened knowing that New Jersey's moved away from detention uh even at times where there are crimes committed I know that the state has maintained violent crimes will be uh prosecuted but what do you say to those critics who say that young people are emboldened to engage in bad behavior right now look I I think everyone is entitled to their perspectives we care and my care first and foremost with keeping our state safe and providing security to our residents but the fact is state New Jersey has never been safer last year we had the lowest number of shootings on record since we've been tracking it and this year we're down another 20% that is hundreds of people fewer shot last year and this year than would have been shot in Prior decades and that's not just numbers those are birthday parties and funeral or and weddings that are not funerals and so we always have to keep that perspective but we work very closely with our our Mayors and police Chiefs throughout the state but the fact is the state is safer than frankly it's ever been all right New Jersey's attorney general Matt plaen thanks thanks for being with us tonight thank you for having me [Music]