For incarcerated trans women: ‘Injustice at every turn’
By Princess Harmony posted on April 14, 2021
According to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, one in six transgender people have been imprisoned. For Black transgender people the ratio is one in two. The prison system is no place for anyone to be, but for a trans person the prison system is especially threatening. A study done in the California prison system found trans people are 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other incarcerated people.
Imprisoned in Georgia, Ashley Diamond was raped 14 times by both sexually violent inmates and prison staff. This was after a guard talked about her gender identity using slurs like “freak” and “it.” With the aid of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center, Diamond is suing the Georgia Department of Corrections for placing her in a men’s facility.
TRENTON – The state has reached an agreement on a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that is likely to result in federal monitors overseeing changes at the long-troubled Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.
Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks, whose resignation or impeachment has been demanded by lawmakers in the wake of the beatings of prisoners at Edna Mahan in mid-January, revealed the pending settlement in testimony Thursday before a joint session of two Assembly committees.
“That agreement is awaiting final approval from DOJ headquarters, which we expect to receive in the coming weeks,” Hicks said.
The consent decree follows a Justice Department report from a year ago that found numerous civil-rights violations at the women’s prison. The state this week announced it had agreed to pay nearly $21 million to settle civil lawsuits filed in connection with sexual assaults at the prison dating to 2014.
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N.J. agrees to pay almost $21 million to settle sexual abuse claims at women’s prison
Updated 9:29 PM;
Today 8:27 PM
Protestors gathered outside the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton on March 27, 2021 after new allegations of abuse emerged.Keith A. Muccilli | For NJ Advance Media
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New Jersey has agreed to pay almost $21 million to several women who said they were sexually abused while incarcerated at New Jersey’s only women’s prison and to other former inmates, officials announced Wednesday.
The agreement still needs approval from a state Superior Court. If that happens, money will also be set aside for former prisoners who have not yet come forward with claims of abuse, said Oliver Barry, an attorney representing women who filed civil lawsuits.
NJ to pay $21M for assaults at women s prison, federal oversight coming
Trenton Bureau
Federal monitors will likely oversee New Jersey s troubled women s prison under an agreement reached with investigators who had found rampant sexual abuse at the facility, the state s corrections chief told lawmakers on Thursday a day after announcing a $21 million settlement connected to the prison.
Federal oversight is part of a Department of Corrections consent decree a type of settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which issued a scathing report about abuse within Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in April 2020, Commissioner Marcus O. Hicks said. Hicks said the agreement has not yet been formally approved but likely will be within weeks, when more details could be provided.