In Trenton, Gov

In Trenton, Gov. McGreevey signed into law a sweeping expansion of inmate DNA testing to cover all state prisoners, parolees and probationers. The goal is to help law enforcement solve more crimes, McGreevey said. Prisoners aren't the only ones who will have to provide DNA samples. Individuals who are sentenced to some form of state supervision that doesn't include prison will be required to provide a DNA sample, as well as juveniles adjudicated delinquent and people found not guilty by reason of insanity. The new law also adds a $2 surcharge on traffic and parking tickets to fund a staffing increase at the state's DNA lab to reduce the lengthy backlog for testing of evidence in criminal cases. Currently, the average delay is 210 days. McGreevey said his goal is to reduce it to 30 days within the next 18 months. An extra $8 million is expected to be generated by the surcharge annually to pay for 40 more scientists, more than doubling the current staff that works on DNA analysis. Civil libertarians said the expansion was another example of government intrusions of privacy, suggesting that it was only a matter of time before DNA information would be taken from law-abiding citizens. New Jersey joins 23 states that have similar programs for widespread sampling of prisoners, McGreevey said. The New Jersey database will be linked with the FBI's national database. The expanded DNA sampling began yesterday. The number of samples in the state's database will increase from 10,000 to 140,000 in the next 18 to 24 months, McGreevey said. Previously, DNA samples were generally taken from inmates convicted of serious crimes such as murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and endangering or luring a child. That database has generated 57 DNA matches in criminal cases, said Patricia Prezioso, assistant attorney general overseeing the DNA program.