Proposed legislation would expand the program statewide, connecting defendants with housing, treatment, employment, and other support.

Nearly three out of every four people charged with crimes in New Jersey’s superior courts rely on the Office of the Public Defender because they cannot afford a private attorney.

But for many clients, criminal charges are only one part of a much larger crisis. Many are also struggling with addiction, untreated mental illness, unstable housing, unemployment, or poverty.

Jennifer Sellitti, who leads the Office of the Public Defender, said those underlying challenges often make it difficult for people to meet basic court obligations, leading to missed court dates, delayed case resolution, and repeated involvement with the criminal justice system.

“When someone is struggling to find stable housing, access mental health or substance use treatment, secure transportation, or obtain steady employment, even basic court obligations can become overwhelming,” Sellitti told The Jersey Vindicator.

Even defendants who want treatment often cannot access it because they lack health insurance, identification, transportation, or stable housing. As a result, the underlying issues that contributed to their involvement with the criminal justice system often go untreated.

Instead of treating those barriers as separate from a criminal case, Sellitti wanted to address them from the moment someone entered the criminal justice system.

She was inspired by words from Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

Holistic defense is an approach used by some public defender offices around the country that combines legal representation with social services, recognizing that challenges such as addiction, untreated mental illness, or homelessness can affect both criminal cases and long-term outcomes.

The model embeds client specialists alongside defense attorneys from the beginning of a case. Working under attorney-client confidentiality, the specialists identify barriers that could interfere with a client’s ability to navigate the legal system and help connect clients with housing assistance, mental health and substance use treatment, employment services, transportation, and other support.

Traditionally, those services often were not coordinated until plea negotiations or sentencing, if they were provided at all. Sellitti said the criminal justice system has long lacked formal ways to connect defendants with existing social services, often leaving attorneys and counselors trying to fill the role of social workers. Under the holistic model, clients receive support throughout the legal process while attorneys focus on legal representation.

To test the approach, the Office of the Public Defender launched a pilot program in March of 2025 in Atlantic, Hudson, and Monmouth counties.

The pilot focused on defendants facing significant social and behavioral health challenges. About 25% were unhoused, 60% had diagnosed mental illnesses, 80% entered the system with active substance use disorders, and between 65% and 90% came from low-income households.

The goal was to determine whether addressing those needs early in a case could help stabilize clients while improving outcomes for both the courts and public safety.

“Most people who enter the justice system will eventually return to their communities,” Sellitti said. “The question is whether they return more stable, more connected, and less likely to reoffend, or more desperate than when they entered.”

After its first year, the pilot has shown promising results.

Connections to community services increased by 442% during the pilot’s first year, suggesting many participants had previously been unable to access the services they needed. Among participants seeking employment, 80% were connected with jobs or workforce training programs.

Participants who received holistic support were also more likely to succeed while released before trial, Sellitti said. About 70% of participants were granted pretrial release. Of those participants, 98% remained arrest-free. Among the 62 participants who were on parole, only one was rearrested, and that case was later dismissed.

Sellitti said the results suggest the model can improve public safety while helping people address the factors that contributed to their involvement with the criminal justice system.

“This model not only rebuilds the lives of the people we serve but also improves government efficiency by ensuring the correct professional does the job, lowers costs to taxpayers by diverting deserving individuals from costly state prisons, and improves public safety by ensuring people receive the help they need to address the root cause of their offenses and lead productive lives,” she said.

For now, the holistic defense model is available only in Atlantic, Hudson, and Monmouth counties. Sellitti said expanding it statewide would allow more defendants to access the same coordinated legal and social support.

The successful pilot has prompted legislation to expand the model statewide. In May, Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Bergen, Passaic) introduced bill A4897, which would make the holistic defense model available through the Office of the Public Defender across New Jersey.

Schaer said the legislation would help ensure that people facing addiction, mental health challenges, housing instability, and unemployment are connected with legal and social supports “at the front end of the system, not after the damage is already done.”