New Jersey Penal Code Made Simple

by Kimani Upshur, M.Ed.

What does ‘2C:35-10’ mean — and could it put you in prison for five years? Most New Jersey residents cannot answer that question until the night they desperately need to. New Jersey Penal Code Made Simple changes that. This plain-English guide translates the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice — Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes — into language anyone can understand, with the real section numbers kept in view. Across twelve focused chapters, educator Kimani Upshur, M.Ed. walks you through how criminal law actually works in the Garden State: the degree system that decides every sentence, crimes against persons from assault to murder, property crimes and their dollar bands, drug offenses and the cannabis revolution, the Graves Act’s mandatory gun penalties, fraud, DWI and license consequences, the criminal process step by step, your defenses and constitutional rights, sentencing and life after conviction, and the myths that get good people in trouble. Every chapter ends with ‘Know the Law’ takeaways and ‘Protect Yourself’ action steps, built around a simple framework: Know. Guard. Protect. This is general education, not legal advice, and the book says so plainly. Written from a Christian worldview — Scripture first.