State of New Jersey chooses Pegasystems to accelerate criminal justice reform program

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – April 19, 2016 – Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the software company empowering the world’s leading enterprises with strategic business applications, today announced that the New Jersey Courts selected the Pega 7 platform to support its revolutionary criminal justice reform program. This will enable the state to efficiently identify, release, and track low-risk defendants before their trial dates to create a fairer criminal justice process for its citizens while reducing jail populations and associated taxpayer costs.

According to the Center for Court Innovation, an estimated half million people are detained every day across the United States because of an inability to post bail. As a result, jail populations rise and state spending increases, which ultimately impacts taxpayers. This often takes a personal toll on low-risk defendants who cannot post bail and are unable to report to work, leading to possible job loss and further financial disadvantage. New Jersey voters chose an alternative path by passing a constitutional amendment on bail reform that will go into effect in January 2017. The state has turned to Pegasystems to help operationalize these changes and create a more productive and cost effective system for court employees, taxpayers, and defendants.

Pegasystems’ software will enable the New Jersey Courts to quickly conduct intelligent risk assessments of each defendant using pre-determined rules and criteria to assist in a judge’s determination of pre-trial release eligibility. While many court systems still operate with paper documents and disparate systems, Pegasystems will unify and analyze all relevant materials on the defendant’s case in a single platform, empowering judges with the information they need to make better and more informed pre-trial release decisions. Information on released defendants will then be tracked through Pegasystems case management capabilities as the state monitors them until trial. By centralizing the entire system on Pegasystems software, New Jersey Courts employees can integrate multiple systems of record, automate processes, and make real-time decisions using pre-determined rules about a defendant’s pre-trial path.

Pegasystems’ industry-leading Pega 7 platform provides a model-driven, visual approach to application development that allows organizations and IT to collaborate in delivering applications faster and more accurately than traditional code-based development approaches. The software uses visual models to capture business processes, rules, data models, user interfaces, and integration points, combined with real-time decisioning capabilities to deliver automated and accurate business processes. In doing so, Pega provides government organizations with the power to achieve results by improving constituent satisfaction and reducing costs.

Quotes & Commentary:

“Our collaboration with the New Jersey Courts will allow the state to transform its criminal justice system to be more efficient and cost effective,” said Doug Averill, Business Line Leader, Public Sector, Pegasystems. “We are proud to play a role in these historic changes that will have a major impact on people’s lives and hopefully inspire other states to follow New Jersey’s lead.”

Supporting Resources:

Pega Platform

Public Sector Case Studies