NJRC Urges Trauma-Informed Mental Health Treatment as Essential to Justice Reform
NJRC’s 2026 Reentry Conference brought together leaders in government, medicine, law, and public policy to highlight the urgent need for trauma-informed mental health care in justice reform. Speakers emphasized that untreated trauma drives instability, recidivism, and public safety risks, underscoring the need for treatment, recovery, and dignity-focused reentry strategies.
Jersey CIty, NJ, April 14, 2026 --(PR.com)-- On April 2, 2026, NJRC held its Annual Reentry Conference, Trauma and Healing: Brain Science, Human Dignity, and Justice, at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City. The conference brought together leaders in government, medicine, psychiatry, law, and public life to examine a central policy issue: trauma affects cognition, emotional regulation, judgment, and behavior, and serious reentry policy must therefore include a strong, clinically driven mental health and addiction treatment response.
To watch the conference recap video, please click here: https://youtu.be/eUsXTL8UtT0?si=GsTkWBGIh4yVDyHP
Governor Mikie Sherrill opened the conference with a clear commitment to reentry, public safety, and the importance of mental health care in sound justice policy. Her remarks underscored that the criminal justice system increasingly confronts individuals whose actions are shaped not only by poverty, addiction, and instability, but also by untreated trauma and behavioral health needs. Her leadership reflected the view that public policy must move beyond punishment alone and toward systems that support treatment, recovery, and lawful reintegration.
“In too many cases we have seen a prison sentence be a lifetime sentence, so that’s why the work to create better job opportunities, to have mental health support, to have diversion programs … We are finding ways to make sure that people can thrive after incarceration, or if we’re really successful to avoid it in the first place.” -Governor Mikie Sherrill, April 2, 2026
The conference made clear that trauma is a neurobiological condition that can impair cognition, emotional regulation, impulse control, and judgment. In her keynote, Harvard-trained neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor explained how trauma affects brain function, while Dr. Akunjili of JCMC, Dr. Elie Aoun of Columbia University, DHS Commissioner Dr. Stephen Cha, and Dr. Petros Levounis, former President of the American Psychiatric Association, reinforced the need for a more thoughtful, clinically grounded mental health and addiction treatment response for justice-involved individuals. David Brooks added a broader moral and civic perspective, underscoring the importance of human dignity, empathy, and meaningful social connection in any serious response to trauma and reintegration.
Speaker Craig Coughlin focused attention on what more the State can do to build a system that responds intelligently to trauma, addiction, and behavioral health needs. A bipartisan panel of former Governors Kean, DiFrancesco, Corzine, and Christie examined the intersecting realities of poverty, addiction, domestic violence, education, and instability, while underscoring the need for a purposefully designed structure of clinically driven mental health care during incarceration and after release.
NJRC also recognizes the important contributions of Judge Madeline Cox Arleo, Judge Zahid Quraishi, and Judge Esther Salas, whose participation reflected the judiciary’s important role in shaping a more thoughtful and humane justice system.
The day concluded with a critical observation from Chief Phil Alagia: Essex County Correctional Facility now functions, in effect, as the largest mental health hospital in the State. That reality underscores a larger truth: the role of prisons and jails has changed. They are increasingly managing individuals with serious mental illness, addiction, trauma histories, and related clinical needs. Public policy must respond with stronger mental health care, addiction treatment, stabilization, and structured clinical support.
NJRC’s work is grounded in that same understanding. NJRC provides behavioral health services, including mental health and addiction treatment, and facilitates linkage to medical and dental diagnosis and clinical care. The conference reinforced that these services are fundamental to reentry, public safety, and stable, law-abiding lives.
Contact: Jim McGreevey
609.439.9094
To watch the conference recap video, please click here: https://youtu.be/eUsXTL8UtT0?si=GsTkWBGIh4yVDyHP
Governor Mikie Sherrill opened the conference with a clear commitment to reentry, public safety, and the importance of mental health care in sound justice policy. Her remarks underscored that the criminal justice system increasingly confronts individuals whose actions are shaped not only by poverty, addiction, and instability, but also by untreated trauma and behavioral health needs. Her leadership reflected the view that public policy must move beyond punishment alone and toward systems that support treatment, recovery, and lawful reintegration.
“In too many cases we have seen a prison sentence be a lifetime sentence, so that’s why the work to create better job opportunities, to have mental health support, to have diversion programs … We are finding ways to make sure that people can thrive after incarceration, or if we’re really successful to avoid it in the first place.” -Governor Mikie Sherrill, April 2, 2026
The conference made clear that trauma is a neurobiological condition that can impair cognition, emotional regulation, impulse control, and judgment. In her keynote, Harvard-trained neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor explained how trauma affects brain function, while Dr. Akunjili of JCMC, Dr. Elie Aoun of Columbia University, DHS Commissioner Dr. Stephen Cha, and Dr. Petros Levounis, former President of the American Psychiatric Association, reinforced the need for a more thoughtful, clinically grounded mental health and addiction treatment response for justice-involved individuals. David Brooks added a broader moral and civic perspective, underscoring the importance of human dignity, empathy, and meaningful social connection in any serious response to trauma and reintegration.
Speaker Craig Coughlin focused attention on what more the State can do to build a system that responds intelligently to trauma, addiction, and behavioral health needs. A bipartisan panel of former Governors Kean, DiFrancesco, Corzine, and Christie examined the intersecting realities of poverty, addiction, domestic violence, education, and instability, while underscoring the need for a purposefully designed structure of clinically driven mental health care during incarceration and after release.
NJRC also recognizes the important contributions of Judge Madeline Cox Arleo, Judge Zahid Quraishi, and Judge Esther Salas, whose participation reflected the judiciary’s important role in shaping a more thoughtful and humane justice system.
The day concluded with a critical observation from Chief Phil Alagia: Essex County Correctional Facility now functions, in effect, as the largest mental health hospital in the State. That reality underscores a larger truth: the role of prisons and jails has changed. They are increasingly managing individuals with serious mental illness, addiction, trauma histories, and related clinical needs. Public policy must respond with stronger mental health care, addiction treatment, stabilization, and structured clinical support.
NJRC’s work is grounded in that same understanding. NJRC provides behavioral health services, including mental health and addiction treatment, and facilitates linkage to medical and dental diagnosis and clinical care. The conference reinforced that these services are fundamental to reentry, public safety, and stable, law-abiding lives.
Contact: Jim McGreevey
609.439.9094
Contact
New Jersey Reentry Corporation
Matt Sampson
917-676-5951
njreentry.org/
Director of Communications
Matt Sampson
917-676-5951
njreentry.org/
Director of Communications
Contact
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