Now that a top oversight official for New Jersey’s prisons has announced his resignation – a day after a hearing where legislators were clearly unhappy with his work – inmates could see their conditions improve, lawmakers said.
Ombudsman Dan DiBenedetti plans to resign this summer from the position he has held since 2009. He would leave office a year after getting greater power to serve as a prison watchdog but, critics have said, not using that power.
New Jersey’s prisons have come under increased scrutiny, including its only prison for women where federal authorities have detailed assaults and sexual abuse. A violent assault on female inmates earlier this year is now the subject of criminal investigations.
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
Why is Murphy getting a free pass on the Edna Mahan rapes and beatings? | Moran
Updated Apr 11, 2021;
Posted Apr 11, 2021
Officer Luis Garcia, Sgt. Amir Bethea, Sgt. Anthony Valvano and Sgt. Matthew Faschan have all been criminally charged for their roles in alleged beatdown of inmates at the Edna Mahan prison. In a scorching report issued last April, the Department of Justice charged that rapes went unchecked in all wings of the prison for years, and continued during the Murphy administration.
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For more than three hours on Thursday, Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks squirmed in his seat as horrified legislators grilled him over the unchecked rapes and assaults at the state’s only prison for women, the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility.
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Good Friday morning!
You’re finally on your way to being able to legally buy weed without a qualifying medical condition. Gov. Murphy yesterday formally appointed the Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which starts the clock on a six-month deadline to come up with rules and regulations for the recreational weed marketplace.