Mayors of Edison, Marlboro call for stricter penalties surrounding juvenile crimes
Edison Mayor Sam Joshi and Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik want to see juveniles accused of stealing cars and breaking into homes charged as adults.
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There’s a push to have juveniles who commit home invasions and car thefts charged as adults in New Jersey.
The call for change is coming from the mayors of Edison and Marlboro, as well as the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association.
Edison Mayor Sam Joshi and Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik are at the front of this attempt to charge teens as adults when they are caught working with organized crime to steal cars and break into homes.
“State lawmakers need to wake up and embrace the fact that juveniles need to be held accountable,” Joshi said at a news conference on Monday.
Hornik says there are no consequences for teen offenders under the juvenile justice system.
“We need to hold these minors in these cases responsible as adults,” he says. “And they must be held responsible as adults now. We cannot wait anymore.”
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Three teens from Rahway were arrested after attempting to carjack a man at a parking lot at an Edison grocery store last week. The incident was captured on surveillance cameras and showed the man getting dragged out of his vehicle before running away with the key fob.
While the arrests were made, there is a fear that because of leniency with the juvenile justice system, those teens could be released within days.
Edison is trying to reduce these types of crimes. They have extra police officers on patrol, over 80 license plate readers to track stolen cars and the department recently set up a substation in the northern section of the township.
“They can come in and interact with police. If they need a police report, they can come here. We have marked units and detective units out of here,” Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan says.
Bryan says his officers have stopped 32 home invasions and vehicle thefts in the last few months. He says he also wants to see juveniles charged as adults and for juveniles to face charges in the county where the crime occurs.
Currently, their cases are heard where they live.
Joshi and Hornik have spoken with the state attorney general and have sent letters to the governor and state legislators. But they say so far, they are getting very few responses to what they consider a crisis.
