Support for impeaching N.J. prison leader grows in wake of alleged beatings of women inmates
Updated Feb 13, 2021;
Posted Feb 11, 2021
New Jersey Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks in a Jan. 8, 2020, file photo at the Family Guidance Center of Warren County in Washington Township.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com
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A growing coalition of lawmakers have announced their support for impeaching the head of New Jersey’s prison system amid a criminal probe into assaults against female inmates by staff at the state’s only women’s prison.
A bipartisan group of 10 women in the state Assembly said Thursday they’d support forcing Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks out of a job, which would be the first time in modern history the Legislature impeached a leader in the executive branch.
NJ senators want prisons chief gone amid abuse scandal
There are growing calls for Gov. Phil Murphy to fire the Department of Corrections commissioner amid a probe of accusations of abuse by corrections staff against inmates at the state s women’s prison.
All 25 Senate Democrats have called for Marcus Hicks to immediately resign as DOC commissioner following the suspension of 30 employees at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women along with a new internal investigation stemming from a Jan. 11 incident. Republicans also have called for his removal.
“He has demonstrated time and again that he is not up to the task of running the Department of Corrections, a department that holds the responsibility for the custody and care of approximately 20,000 state-sentenced offenders housed across 12 state correctional facilities, county jails and community halfway houses,” the lawmakers said in a Jan. 28 letter to the governor.
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