NCJ Number
77267
Date Published
Unknown
Length
231 pages
Annotation
The New Jersey State Commission of Investigation's (SCI) 1978 annual report summarizes major investigations undertaken since 1969 and then describes SCI's program to combat organized crime and inquiries into abuses of the absentee ballot law.
Abstract
The historical overview of the SCI emphasizes that it was founded to expose crime, official corruption, and governmental abuses to the public and to recommend improvements in laws and governmental operations. A review of the SCI's principal investigations over a 10-year period begins with organized crime leaders, but also includes improper practices in the building services industry, misappropriation of funds in Atlantic City, bank frauds, abuses of the State's worker compensation system, false charitable fundraising appeals, medicaid abuses, and irregularities in the boarding house industry. A major portion of the report is devoted to public hearings held in December 1978 which climaxed a prolonged series of inquiries by the SCI and other law enforcement agencies into abuses of the absentee ballot. Because poor wording of the statute governing absentee ballots made prosecution of obvious violators practically impossible, the attorney general felt that the SCI's factfinding and public hearing functions could make the public aware of the problems and stimulate needed legislative reforms. The hearings focused on selected municipalities where investigators had uncovered numerous and gross irregularities. For example, ballots were steamed open in North Bergen and altered for partisan reasons and the candidate himself apparently marked many absentee ballots in Fieldsboro. Excerpts from the testimony concerning abuses in North Bergen, Fieldsboro, and Sea Isle City are provided, along with the SCI's recommendations and the legislature's proposed statutory revisions. Footnotes are supplied. The appendixes contain a list of the SCI's members and the statutes governing the SCI.