N.J. to delete names of former inmates from state website

The New Jersey Corrections Department is removing the names of some former inmates from its website.

The site will no longer include information about convicted criminals who have been out of prison for at least a year.

Jim Ryan with the New Jersey PBA questions whether that’s a good idea.

“Many of these people, if you Google-search their name, that information would still be there,” Ryan said Friday. “And to censor it, to make the citizens jump through loopholes to try to find the right information, I’m just not sure who we’re serving.”

Alexander Shalom with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey says people who have served their time deserve to be able to get on with their lives.

“It’s a great recognition by the Department of Corrections that there are these barriers to re-entering society,” Shalom said. “There are employment barriers and there are other barriers, and they want to do their part to possibly reduce those barriers.”

Shalom maintains there’s no public safety interest in waiting a year to purge the names from the site and says that should be done as soon as possible after inmates finish their sentence or parole.