Find Garden State Releases

Garden State Release Routes

Garden State Youth Correctional Facility is a New Jersey Department of Corrections institution in Chesterfield Township. Its location within Burlington County does not turn it into a county jail or make the county the keeper of its offender records. NJDOC controls the state incarceration history, sentence-related dates, movements, and out-of-custody entry. The words “County of Commitment: Burlington” in an NJDOC result identify the sentencing venue. They do not identify the current institution or the office that holds a Garden State release record.

Leaving Garden State can mean several different things. A person may complete an NJDOC custody term, leave prison for parole or mandatory supervision, transfer to another state institution, enter a community residential placement while still in legal custody, or move to another authority because of a warrant or detainer. Only the records can identify the route. An institutional departure should not be called an unconditional community release unless the custody history and any receiving-agency record support that conclusion.

Confirm Garden State Releases

The official NJDOC Offender Search is the correct public route for a person held at Garden State. An SBI number is the strongest search key because several people can share a name. Without it, enter the person’s name and use aliases and available biographical details to separate possible matches. The search is for state correctional custody. It is not a live Burlington County jail roster.

1. Open the NJDOC search and accept the conditions shown by the state.
2. Search by SBI number when it is known. Otherwise, use the surname and given name, then narrow the candidates with the available descriptors.
3. Match the SBI number, aliases, county of commitment, and commitment or case numbers before relying on a result.
4. Open the detail and read Current Facility, Incarceration History, Date In-Custody, and Date Out-of-Custody together.
5. Compare the commitment or case number with the court record, especially when several sentences or custody periods appear.
6. If the person left prison for parole or mandatory supervision, continue with the New Jersey State Parole Board.

A current facility entry means the person is still reported within the NJDOC system at that institution or placement. A Date Out-of-Custody is historical proof that the listed state custody period ended, but another warrant or receiving authority may have taken custody next. The Burlington County released inmate search separates the county, state, federal, and immigration routes when the original custodian is unclear.

Note: Match the SBI number and case identifiers before treating an NJDOC result as the correct person.

Garden State Release Fields

NJDOC uses distinct labels for a past release and for dates that are still being calculated. Date Out-of-Custody records the historical end of an NJDOC custody interval. Current Max Release Date is the latest calculated maximum date after earned days are subtracted and days tied to negative institutional conduct are added. NJDOC warns that this calculated date can change at the end of a month. Neither label should be replaced with a vague statement that someone “gets out” on a certain day.

Current Parole Eligibility Date is based on State Parole Board calculation policies. Eligibility begins a decision process. It is not a parole grant. A hearing officer may conduct an initial hearing, and a two-member panel may grant or deny parole. A denial can produce a Future Eligibility Term. Even after a grant, new information can lead to a rescission hearing before physical release. For an event that already happened, the out-of-custody field and the relevant Board record carry more weight than an eligibility date.

Garden State Records Contact

A public search result may be enough for an initial check, but a fuller or official Garden State release entry belongs with NJDOC. Use New Jersey OPRA Central and select the Department of Corrections. A request should identify the person by full name and SBI number when known, state the custody period, and name the existing record sought. Examples include an incarceration history, release or discharge entry, or movement record. Do not route an NJDOC request to Burlington County merely because the prison sits in Chesterfield Township.

Precision helps the records custodian locate the correct material. Include the commitment or case number if available and specify the date range. If a record contains both public and protected parts, request the releasable portion with exempt material redacted. OPRA provides access to government records, but it does not make each correctional file or database field public. The custodian must apply the statute to the particular record.

The official NJDOC search help defines the offender-search fields. Use that source to interpret a public result. Court judgments and orders remain Judiciary records, while NJDOC owns the state custody and movement history. A complete release check may require both.

Note: Garden State records are state records even when the sentence began with a Burlington County case.

Garden State Parole Releases

Release from Garden State to parole ends imprisonment at the institution but begins supervision by the New Jersey State Parole Board. Parole is not the same as a final discharge. Certain mandatory-supervision terms also remain under the Board. District Office 6 covers Burlington, Hunterdon, and Mercer counties, though the assigned office follows the person’s supervision arrangement rather than the prison’s location by itself.

Parole

Release from prison into State Parole Board supervision under stated conditions.

Eligibility

The stage at which parole consideration may begin, not a promise of release.

Discharge

The documented end of the relevant custody or supervision term.

Rescission

Board review that may withdraw a parole grant before physical release.

Revocation

A process that can return a person to custody after alleged serious or persistent violations.

New Jersey does not provide a simple public name search that lists every person on parole. Public eligibility notices cover certain people nearing consideration and are not a complete supervision roster. Begin with the NJDOC history, then contact the Board with the SBI and case information when supervision must be confirmed. Disclosure may be limited. More detail about the difference between parole, probation, and discharge appears in the Burlington County post-release supervision resource.

Which Burlington Custody System Applies?

Burlington County presents an unusual four-way records problem. County Corrections, several NJDOC institutions, FCI Fort Dix, and possible ICE or other federal movement all operate in or affect the same geographic area. The location alone cannot select the right database. The controlling question is which agency had legal custody during the interval being checked.

A move from Garden State to another NJDOC facility remains within the state branch. An out-of-custody date followed by parole leads to the Parole Board. A transfer to a warrant, federal authority, or ICE requires the receiving system. The end of one agency’s custody is evidence about that agency only. It does not by itself establish that no other legal restraint remained.

Note: Start with the agency that held the person, then follow each recorded transfer to its receiving system.

Historic Prison Is Different

The historic Burlington County Prison at 128 High Street can appear in local search results, but it is not Garden State Youth Correctional Facility and has no role in a recent NJDOC release. The old prison closed in 1965 and is now a museum. Its surviving material may help with local history or genealogy. It cannot answer whether someone has just left state custody.

Current Garden State questions stay with NJDOC. County jail questions go to Burlington County Corrections. The Burlington County Prison Museum page is useful only to identify the historic site and avoid sending a present-day custody inquiry there. Similar names and shared geography should never outweigh the operator shown in the custody record.

Garden State Court Record Check

The New Jersey court case supplies legal context for a Garden State custody history. Compare the commitment or case number, judgment, sentence, mandatory minimum, and any jail-credit entry with the NJDOC record. A court file may show an amended judgment or another sentence that explains why a calculated date changed. It is not a live physical-custody locator, so the court record and NJDOC history answer different questions.

New Jersey’s No Early Release Act requires an 85 percent parole-ineligibility term for specified first- and second-degree crimes. It is not a rule for every state prisoner and cannot serve as a homemade release-date formula. The general one-third parole eligibility principle also yields to a specific minimum term, consecutive sentences, credits, and other controlling law. Current Max Release Date already reflects NJDOC calculations and may change as days are earned or forfeited.

When the court and NJDOC dates seem inconsistent, obtain the filed judgment, relevant credit material, and state incarceration history. Then check for another sentence, warrant, detainer, parole decision, or amended order. For a completed Garden State departure, Date Out-of-Custody is the key public historical field. If another agency took custody, that agency’s record must complete the chain.

NJDOC’s Fair Release and Reentry information also describes the release portfolio supplied when a person actually leaves state custody. It may include final discharge paperwork, a temporary release photo ID, identity documents when available, trust-account material, and notice of active warrants or detainers. Those personal documents can help the released person verify the transition, but most are not public lookup fields.