Wright v. New Jersey State Parole Board

Amicus brief arguing that the tolling of a state criminal mandatory parole sentences by federal civil immigration detention violates the doctrine of fundamental fairness.

In this case, Mr. Wright was sentenced to an aggregate term of eleven years in prison, with five years of mandatory parole supervision. After he completed his prison term, Mr. Wright was immediately detained by U.S. Customs & Immigration Enforcement (“ICE”) and held for three years. Instead of Mr. Wright’s mandatory parole sentence beginning when his sentence of incarceration ended, the Parole Board determined that it began when he was released from ICE custody subjecting him to three more years of parole supervision, a decision upheld on appeal. The ACLU-NJ’s amicus brief argues that the tolling of a state criminal mandatory parole sentence violates the doctrine of fundamental fairness under Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution because it effectively extends a defendant’s criminal sentence by lengthening the time they are subject to parole supervision. The brief explains that the Parole Board’s decision unfairly uses civil immigration, which is legally classified as not punitive, as a punishment tool to impose a longer time under parole supervision. With the growing rise in federal immigration enforcement operations and unlawful detentions in New Jersey, there is an urgent need for the New Jersey Supreme Court to reverse this practice because it puts more people at risk of unconstitutionally extended parole sentences.