2A:67-6. Sending citizen as prisoner out of State for offense committed within State; action for damages; punishment; disqualification; exceptions

2A:67-6. For preventing illegal imprisonment of citizens of this State in prisons out of this State, no citizen of this State who is an inhabitant or resident thereof, shall be sent as a prisoner to any place whatsoever out of this State, for any crime or offense committed within this State, and every such imprisonment is hereby declared to be illegal unless such transfer of such person to a place of confinement outside the State is accomplished pursuant to the provisions of any interstate compact approved by the Legislature for such purpose and to which the State is signatory.

If any such citizen shall be so imprisoned, except as provided for herein by compact, he may, for every such imprisonment, maintain, by virtue of this chapter, an action at law in the Superior Court for the damages sustained thereby, against the person by whom he shall be so committed, detained, imprisoned, sent prisoner or transported contrary to the true intent and meaning of this chapter, and against any person who shall frame, contrive, write, seal, sign, or countersign any warrant or writing for such commitment, detainer, imprisonment or transportation, or who shall advise, aid or assist in the same or any of them. In such action the plaintiff may recover penal as well as compensatory damages but in any case the damages shall not be less than $1,500.00.

Any person who shall knowingly frame, contrive, write, seal, sign or countersign any warrant for such commitment, detainer, or transportation, or shall so commit, detain, imprison or transport any person contrary to this chapter, or advise, aid or assist therein, shall be fined or imprisoned at hard labor, or both, at the discretion of the court before which the conviction shall be had and shall in addition thereto, from thenceforth be disqualified from holding any office or trust or profit under this State.

Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to prevent the sending of a citizen of this State or person at any time resident therein, who has committed any treason, felony or misdemeanor in another state of the United States or in any foreign country, to such other state or foreign country having jurisdiction of such offense, for the purpose of being tried therefor.

L.1951 (1st SS), c.344; amended 1973,c.16; 1991,c.91,s.111.