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by Todd DeFeo, The Center Square contributor | April 12, 2021 02:00 PM Print this article
Some New Jersey lawmakers want more information on roughly $21 million in settlements the state reached with current and former inmates at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.
The lawmakers, in part, want to know whether the settlements involving 20 lawsuits include nondisclosure agreements barring the women from speaking about their time at Edna Mahan.
The taxpayer-funded settlement comes as a bipartisan group wants the removal of New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks over allegations of abuse and mistreatment of inmates at the Union Township facility.
“The Administration’s need to pay $21 million to settle civil lawsuits stemming from sexual assaults, beatings, brutality and misconduct by corrections officers at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women from 2014 to the present is just further evidence of a
New N.J. legal weed law that eases penalties on underage drinking alarms lawmakers. But data shows few teens get caught anyway.
Updated Mar 10, 2021;
The rules were clear for years: Those under 21 caught with alcohol could face arrests and fines.
But the law shifted nearly overnight last month. Legislators seeking a racially just response to underage marijuana use downgraded a criminal offense to warnings and roped alcohol in, too.
There will be no more searches of young people for concealed beer cans, and police officers cannot stop them if they smell marijuana, either. Instead, officers can issue written warnings if they catch someone under 21 with weed or booze. But those must come under restrictions that have concerned both parents and police.
Following almost two weeks of angry outcries from New Jersey parents and law enforcement, Democrats who control the Legislature are backpedaling on a provision in new marijuana laws that prohibit police from notifying parents if they catch underage kids smoking weed or drinking alcohol.
Democratic leaders have largely been silent though the controversy. Members of the Legislative Black Caucus and Legislative Latino Caucus insisted on a wide ranging decriminalization bill or they would have pulled their support from legislation setting up New Jersey s legal marijuana marketplace. The chairmen of both caucus groups now signal they will support parental notification.
The decriminalization bill was a messy compromise that had the backing of the Black Legislative Caucus. Members successfully killed any attempt to impose fines or penalties for underage use. They claimed police would use those provisions to unfairly stop and fine minority youth more often than whites under the age of 21.
It s a big election year in New Jersey, so it s not surprising to hear legislators pumping the news cycle with scorching critiques like this one:
Because Governor Murphy s administration has failed to protect the most vulnerable people under its care, a new public advocate, an independent watchdog agency, is needed that will quickly investigate complaints of abuse and mismanagement at state institutions.
Yet this criticism didn t come from Murphy s foes from the Republican Party. It came from fellow Democrats, including two who will be on the same ballot with the governor this fall.
“Too often, the administrators responsible do everything they can to prevent public disclosure of the crisis or abuse, said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, who proposed the public advocate plan in a joint statement with Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Mercer, and Sen. Nellie Pou, D-Passaic.