CJ Griffin Quoted in New Jersey Monitor Article About Government Transparency

CJ Griffin, partner and director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was quoted in a New Jersey Monitor article titled, “A Surprising Lawbreaker in Mandated Public Reporting? New Jersey’s Government.” The article discusses how departments within the state of New Jersey have continuously failed to publicly report assets seized during criminal investigations, which was made law in early 2020, passed by Gov. Phil Murphy to help promote government and police transparency.

Many outspoken critics have highlighted the perceived hypocrisy of the state government for not enforcing the same laws that were implemented to highlight government transparency.

“It’s extremely frustrating because what we want is policy in this state to be guided by data. And so many of these disclosure laws require reports about data which will better inform future legislation, yet you have all these state agencies that just flout those laws as if it doesn’t really matter if they comply with them or not,” said CJ Griffin.

Griffin is also particularly concerned that the agency shirking reporting mandates is the Attorney General’s Office.

“They are an office that prosecutes thousands of individuals every year for violating various statutes, but they just ignore the law and selectively comply with it on their own timeline, if they comply with it at all,” Griffin added.

To read the full article, click here.