The Supreme Court of New Jersey issued an Order to Show Cause in response to an application filed by the Office of the Public Defender which may compel the release of many of the inmates currently being held in the Morris County Jail.
Although the jail's population includes a variety of offenders, the emergency application filed by the ACLU currently asks for the immediate release of all non- violent offenders, which would including drug offenders, according to Sparta attorney Jackie O'Donnell, Esq.
O'Donnell, Public Defender in Newark 30 years ago, current owner of O'Donnell Law Firm, LLC on Main Street said that her limited understanding of the relief being sought by the ACLU is that "non- violent offenders will be released if the Order is signed by the New Jersey Supreme Court. This population includes those awaiting sentence into Drug Court or awaiting a bed in a drug program."