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“Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women has a long history of abusive incidents predating our Administration, and we must now commit ourselves to completely breaking this pattern of misconduct to better serve incarcerated women entrusted to the State’s care.
Murphy also released an investigative report detailing cell extractions at the facility that occurred on Jan. 11, calling them "disturbing and horrific." The 75-page document maintains that prison staff filed false reports.
One report describes an inmate becoming “self-injurious” and was “banging her head on the cell door.” While internal reports would indicate that the injury depicted in this publicly reported photograph was self-inflicted, the investigation found "no video evidence to support these claims."
"These false reports caused inaccurate COD reports to be circulated to NJDOC officials, delaying their awareness of the fact that inmates had been seriously injured," the investigative report reads.
"For example, a COD report circulated at 4:17 a.m. on January 12 states that no injuries were reported following any of the Cell Extractions and it does not even list Inmate 3 as one of the inmates removed from her cell.
"Even a 'corrective late report 'circulated by COD more than twelve hours later, at 7:54 p.m. on January 12, states that no injuries were reported, and it still does not mention Inmate 3."
In another incident, male officers were inside a woman's cell during a strip search, while at least one more male officer was actively engaged in the strip search -- and potentially conducted a body cavity search, the report says.
It is preferred that female officers conduct strip searches, with male officers assisting only in emergency situations, the report says.
While officers are blocking the camera during the search, the inmate can be heard asking why a man was ripping her clothes off.
The inmate's written statement says the male officer "digitally penetrated her in the course of the strip search and caused vaginal bleeding," the report says.
Custody staff failed to report this cross-gender strip search, contrary to NJDOC policy, the report reads.
"As noted in the previous section, incident reports falsely stated that only female officers participated," it says.
"In addition, this search certainly was not conducted in a 'professional and respectful manner;' custody staff are seen on video tugging at her clothes, struggling to rip them off of her, and moving her between multiple cells in the process. Male officers also were present for Inmate 2’s strip search."
At least 30 employees of the Hunterdon County prison have been suspended and 10 were charged in connection with assaults on inmates, or trying to cover up an incident.
The U.S. Justice Department last April launched an independent investigation and said the NJDOC "fails to keep prisoners at Edna Mahan safe from sexual abuse by staff."
"After reading the report and its recommendations, I have decided that the only path forward is to responsibly close the facility," Murphy said, noting inmates will be relocated to other facilities.
"While this will not happen overnight, I intend to work with legislative leadership during the current budget cycle to allocate funding to begin this multi-year process."
Click here to read the newly-released report on cell extractions.
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