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New Jersey recorded nearly 1,000 assaults on prison staff in a single fiscal year while its correctional system faced hundreds of vacant officer positions and nearly $168 million in annual custody overtime, according to state records.
New Jersey’s prison system has been confronting several challenges at once: assaults against employees, persistent staffing shortages and rising personnel costs.
State Department of Corrections records show 964 assaults on staff were reported during fiscal year 2025, up from 840 in FY2024. NJDOC projected that number would fall to 648 in FY2026 but no final count has been reported yet.
The increase is part of a longer trend. NJDOC previously told lawmakers that assaults on staff had increased 328% since 2018, while assaults involving bodily fluids had increased 722% over that period.
At the same time, New Jersey’s prisons are operating with substantially fewer employees than before the pandemic.
State prison staffing has fallen about 30%
The number of filled positions at New Jersey’s correctional facilities fell from 7,047 in FY2019 to 4,920 in January 2026, a decline of about 30%, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.
The prison population declined by a similar percentage during that period. The average daily population of state-sentenced people housed in state facilities fell from 16,501 in FY2019 to an estimated 11,693 in FY2026 — also about 30%.
That context is important: the decline in staffing occurred alongside a substantial reduction in the number of people incarcerated in state facilities.
Still, the Department of Corrections has previously told lawmakers that its optimal staffing level, based on its internal full-time-equivalent position cap, is approximately 6,600 positions to safely operate its facilities.
Front-line correctional officer vacancies remain significant.
As of the pay period ending March 6, 2026, NJDOC reported 3,605 filled Correctional Police Officer positions and 522 vacancies, a vacancy rate of 13%. The department noted that the vacancy number did not include another 55 officers who were on leave without pay.
Vacancy rates were considerably lower among supervisory custody positions: 5% for correctional police sergeants and 3% for both lieutenants and majors.
Nearly $168 million spent on custody overtime
Staffing shortages have also contributed to substantial overtime costs.
NJDOC reported $167.98 million in actual custody overtime costs during FY2025. The department projected $167.38 million for FY2026 and $177.55 million for FY2027.
Among individual facilities, Northern State Prison recorded approximately $26 million in custody overtime in FY2025, followed by South Woods State Prison at about $25.5 million and New Jersey State Prison at roughly $25.4 million.
But the dollar totals don’t tell the entire story.
NJDOC says the number of overtime hours has begun to decline, even as costs remain high. The department attributes overtime costs to a combination of staffing levels, operational demands and higher compensation rates.
A labor agreement ratified in 2023 provides annual salary increases of 3.5%, increasing the cost of each overtime hour. NJDOC also says requirements associated with laws including the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act and Dignity for Incarcerated Primary Caretaker Parents Act, along with a shift-overlap policy, have increased the number of staff hours required to operate its facilities.
The Office of Legislative Services has separately identified staff vacancies as a major driver of overtime. A staffing study commissioned by NJDOC found vacancies accounted for 73% of total overtime costs at the time of the study.
Assaults reached 964 in one year
NJDOC reported 840 total assaults on staff in FY2024 and 964 in FY2025, an increase of nearly 15% in one year.
For FY2026, the department projected 648 assaults (this has not been confirmed at the time of writing this article, it remains an estimate) — approximately one-third fewer than the previous year. This expected decline is attributed to ongoing efforts to improve institutional security and staff-safety protocols.
There is currently a call to lawmakers to create a bill that would ease a 2019 restriction on solitary confinement to further improve the assault rates.
That leaves an important unanswered question: Did the anticipated reduction actually happen?
A final FY2026 count would offer a clearer indication of whether the state’s recent safety initiatives are having a measurable impact.
What NJDOC is doing to reduce assaults
The department says it has adopted a broader approach combining security technology, contraband prevention, physical changes inside prisons and behavioral programs.
NJDOC established an Assistant Commissioner of Custody and Security Operations and a dedicated Safety and Security Task Force to oversee and refine safety protocols.
The department also reports fully deploying body-worn cameras, installing detection equipment for internal movement and implementing mail-copying and mail-screening programs intended to reduce the introduction of illicit substances.
Inside Restorative Housing Units, or RHUs, NJDOC has installed security food ports on cell doors and restricted certain property that could potentially be used as weapons.
The food ports are particularly noteworthy.
In an earlier response to lawmakers, NJDOC said bodily-fluid assaults fell 90% in the 246 cells equipped with the new security food ports. The state subsequently proposed additional funding to expand their use.
Related: Safest cities in New Jersey
The state is also experimenting with behavioral approaches
Not every strategy involves additional physical security.
NJDOC says it established a “Level System” within Restorative Housing Units that rewards pro-social behavior with increased privileges.
For people who continue to demonstrate high-risk behavior, the department’s latest budget response also references a “repeat assaulter unit,” restrictions on potentially dangerous property and the use of Management Control Units when necessary.
Critical Incident Negotiation Teams are also being used for de-escalation.
These programs are significant because they show the state is already experimenting with multiple approaches to managing people who repeatedly engage in violent behavior.
Recruitment appears to be improving
New Jersey has also changed how it recruits correctional officers.
A direct-hiring law allows NJDOC to recruit directly into its academy rather than relying exclusively on the traditional Civil Service testing and hiring process.
The department reported that 783 officers had been hired through eight academy classes since implementation of the direct-hire law.
NJDOC also reported that a recent academy class graduated 157 new Correctional Police Officers, its largest class since 2017.
According to the department, approximately 94% of academy graduates remain employed after their first year, while officer attrition has fallen from 26 departures per pay period in 2023 to nine.
Those figures suggest recruitment and retention are moving in a more favorable direction, even though significant vacancies remained as of March.
An independent watchdog sees challenges for both staff and incarcerated people
New Jersey’s independent Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson provides another perspective on conditions inside the prisons.
Its 2025 annual report documented concerns about understaffing, living conditions and limited out-of-cell time in Restorative Housing Units.
The report also acknowledged the impact violence can have on employees.
According to the Ombudsperson, staff members described feeling demoralized by bodily-fluid assaults and expressed hopes that efforts to improve prison conditions would also devote greater attention to staff safety and well-being.
At the same time, the office reported continuing concerns about conditions for people held in disciplinary housing.
At Northern State Prison, for example, the Ombudsperson reported complaints involving isolation, drug use, deteriorating mental health, delays in disciplinary proceedings and difficulty getting assistance from officers. The office also said additional staffing is required there for the secure movement of people housed in the RHU.
The watchdog has recommended reducing the number of people held in RHUs and treating recurring lockdowns caused by insufficient staffing as an emergency requiring greater transparency and state attention.
Prison safety is becoming a larger policy debate
The question of how New Jersey should respond to violence against correctional employees has also reached the Legislature.
The union representing New Jersey correctional officers is seeking changes to the state’s restrictions on isolated confinement, according to the New Jersey Monitor, which reported Sept. 4 that it obtained a draft of the proposed legislation.
The proposal had not been formally introduced when the Monitor published its report, and Wander Jersey has not independently obtained the draft.
That distinction matters because the state’s current safety initiatives are already attempting to address some of the same concerns through recruitment, infrastructure, contraband prevention, behavioral incentives and specialized management of people considered high-risk.
Whether those efforts are working could become an important part of the debate over what New Jersey should do next.
One missing number could tell us a lot
The final FY2026 assault total may be one of the most important numbers still missing from the public picture.
NJDOC projected assaults would decline from 964 in FY2025 to 648 in FY2026. If the final figure is close to that projection, it would represent a significant one-year improvement.
If the actual number is substantially higher, it could raise further questions about whether the state’s current measures are sufficient.
What the available records already show is a correctional system undergoing significant change: prison staffing has fallen roughly 30% since FY2019, hundreds of correctional officer positions remained vacant earlier this year, custody overtime approached $168 million in FY2025 and assaults on staff reached 964 that same fiscal year.
At the same time, recruitment appears to be improving and the state says new security measures are beginning to address some forms of violence.
The next set of numbers will help show whether those changes are enough.
Sources:
Department of Corrections
Office of Legislative Services FY2027 Corrections Budget
2025 Corrections Ombudsperson Annual Report
