N.J. Stat. § 2A:36-1: What constitutes escape

Any person committed to a county jail or other place of detention upon process issued in a civil action, shall be actually detained therein until lawfully discharged. If, at any time, the officer to whom such process was issued permits any person committed to his custody thereunder to go or to be at large out of the jail or other place of detention, except by virtue of a writ of habeas corpus or court order, such going or being at large shall be deemed to be an escape.

L.1951 (1st SS), c.344.