Bill Text: NJ A4961 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires only female corrections officers be employed at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-11-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee [A4961 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-A4961-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman VALERIE VAINIERI HUTTLE
District 37 (Bergen)
SYNOPSIS
Requires only female corrections officers be employed at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning corrections officers and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Commissioner of Corrections shall require all correctional police officers employed at a State correctional facility for women to be female.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following enactment, but the Commissioner of Corrections may take any anticipatory action necessary to implement the provisions of this bill.
STATEMENT
This bill requires all corrections officers employed at a correctional facility for women in this State to be female.
The State's secure facility for female inmates currently is the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton. After the effective date of this bill, all corrections officers employed at Edna Mahan would be required to be female.
This bill is in response to a series of convictions and indictments of, and lawsuits against, male guards and other male staff members employed in Edna Mahan for official misconduct, sexual contact, and sexual assault of inmates housed in the facility. According to the sponsor, these female inmates would be better served by female guards.
