Weinberg, Greenstein: Criminal Charges Against 3 Officers Are Just the First Step in Reforming Edna Mahan

TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Senator Linda Greenstein, chair of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, today issued the following statement in response to the Attorney General’s announcement that criminal charges were being filed against three Corrections officers in connection with the January 11 assaults against inmates at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women:

“The Attorney General said it best in his statement: ‘Edna Mahan has a long, ugly history.’ It was sickening to read the details of the charges against the three officers, and what makes it even more frustrating is that these abuses were allowed to occur despite the scathing report by the U.S. Justice Department last April that concluded that Edna Mahan Corrections officers repeatedly violated the federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act and the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. The acting administrator who was reportedly present during the assaults has been suspended pending further investigation, and the Corrections Commissioner who put him in charge of that facility should immediately be replaced, as the entire 25-member Senate Democratic Caucus recommended to the Governor last week. The Attorney General’s Office expects further indictments, but it is clear that the institutional culture within the Corrections Department precludes the agency from reforming itself. We again urge the Governor in the strongest possible terms to call on the federal government to bring in outside authorities to assume oversight of Edna Mahan.”