While the Republican-led impeachment resolution to remove New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks isn’t moving in the Democrat legislature, the majority is considering a handful of bills which they say will address the widespread reported abuse at New Jersey’s Edna Mahan female prison facility.
Here’s another prison reform measure introduced on Tuesday: forcing the DOC to house inmates based upon their gender identity.
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“Each inmate shall be assigned to a State correctional facility based on the inmate’s gender identity or expression, regardless of the gender that the individual was assigned at birth or the inmate’s anatomical characteristics,” reads the draft text of A-5768. “An inmate who is non-binary shall be assigned to a facility based on the inmate’s stated preference.”
“An inmate may, at any time, inform a Department of Corrections staff member of the inmate’s gender identity or expression and preferred gender pronoun,” the legislative proposal continued. “The Department of Corrections staff member shall follow procedures to be established by the Commissioner of Corrections for ensuring that the inmate is assigned, or reassigned if necessary, to a State correctional facility in accordance with subsection b. of this section.”
Eight New Jersey prison guards have been charged with felonies after the alleged beating of a transgender inmate at the Edna Mahan facility.
Click here to read the bill for yourself.
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