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United States · New Jersey · Trenton

New Jersey State Prison

State prisonMaximumUnder capacity (87%)LowHigh
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

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How to send mail, money, and visit New Jersey State Prison

Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of New Jersey State Prison

New Jersey State Prison is a state prison located in Mercer County, New Jersey. Rated capacity: 1,819. Reported population: 1,587. Security level: Maximum. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.

Background

The New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, is a state men's prison in Trenton, New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. It is the oldest prison in New Jersey and one of the oldest correctional facilities in the United States. It is the state's only completely maximum security institution, housing the most difficult and/or dangerous male offenders in the inmate population. NJSP operates two security units and provides a high level of custodial supervision and control. Professional treatment services, such as education and social work, are a priority at the facility.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

1,819

Current population

1,587

Occupancy

87%

Year opened

1832

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1832

Region

New Jersey

Security level

Maximum

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

The Marshall Project reported that long-term confinement in the Management Control Unit (MCU) at New Jersey State Prison is the norm, with advocates alleging it is used to discipline prisoners viewed as troublemakers or political leaders.

Notable inmates

  • Joseph Vincent Moriarty
    Joseph Vincent Moriarty
    1910–1979

    Joseph Vincent Moriarty (June 1910 – February 26, 1979), also known as Newsboy Moriarty, was an Irish American mobster in Hudson County, New Jersey who controlled the numbers game.

  • Richard Rogers
    Richard Rogers
    1950 · serial killer

    Richard Westall Rogers l0Jr.

  • Khalil Wheeler-Weaver
    1996

    Khalil Wheeler-Weaver (born April 20, 1996) is an American serial killer and arsonist.

  • Lawrence Adair
    1953 · chef

Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

600 Cass St, Trenton 08608

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

11/100
Low concern11/100
Overcrowding
0/30
Oversight reports
1/30
Structural flags
5/15
Death signals
5/15
Conditions text
0/10

What the score is responding to:

  • · 2 oversight reports in the last 5 years
  • · Substantial documented known-issues record
  • · In-custody-death signal in sources

This facility scores 11. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 9 points above national average.

Related facilities

All in United States →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in United States

7436 peers
Occupancythis: 87% · peers avg: 93% (6%)
Capacity (beds)this: 1819 · peers avg: 547 (+233%)

Reports

  • marshall-project10 Feb 2023

    n solitary confinement, the kindness of one New Jersey corrections officer made him feel human. Tara Anand for The Marshall Project O ne winter day, sitting in the Big Yard of New Jersey State Prison, a close friend asked me a complicated question: “Do you hate cops more than anything?” I get questions like this a lot, not only because I write about the state of affairs at my facility, but

    source

  • marshall-project18 Nov 2021

    ive Voices, a blog where he shares his poetry and essays and the writings of other incarcerated people. He was convicted of double homicide in 2005 and is serving 150 years at the New Jersey State Prison. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Corrections stated that solitary confinement is no longer used at New Jersey State Prison, and could not comment on the incident involving

    source

  • marshall-project9 Sept 2021

    ke the Enemy It doesn’t matter how American I feel. The labels applied to me are “foreign,” “terrorist,” “inmate” and “other.” I n late January, I was sitting in my cell in New Jersey State Prison listening to NPR when the news came across the airwaves: A Pakistani Supreme Court was releasing the men convicted of kidnapping and murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in February 2002,

    source

  • marshall-project15 Jul 2021

    m antics could have sparked a fight. But as a former “hard case” myself, I was determined to help him. W hen I became a teachers’ aide for a basic adult education class here at New Jersey State Prison, I learned much more than I ever expected. I had already been incarcerated for nearly 10 years by then, and, as a mid-sized White guy, I survived those years by staying mostly under the radar. Now I

    source

  • marshall-project4 Mar 2021

    ite and run away with his little girlfriend. Now, as a man in my 40s sentenced to life in prison, I think back to that puppet boy and I see myself. Sitting here in my cell at the New Jersey State Prison, where I’ve spent the last 15 years, it can be hard to find hope and humanity in a structure designed to take that away from you. I am the wooden boy in this prison, controlled by all sorts of

    source

  • marshall-project14 Dec 2016

    , which is the only women’s prison in the state, the average number of days spent in administrative segregation was 338. Long-term confinement is similarly the norm in the MCU at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. All but one of the 34 people held in that unit – a form of long term confinement that advocates allege is used to discipline prisoners viewed as troublemakers or political leaders –

    source

Data completeness

74%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). New Jersey State Prison. Retrieved October 25, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/new-jersey-state-prison
Chicago
"New Jersey State Prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 25, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/new-jersey-state-prison.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-new-jersey-state-prison,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {New Jersey State Prison},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/new-jersey-state-prison},
  urldate = {2026-10-25}
}