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Good Monday morning!
I recently wrote about a coming ad blitz from Gov. Murphy’s reelection campaign, which maxed out the $7.3 million it’s allowed to raise in the matching fund program for the primary but has so far not run a single ad.
Prolonged power outage at N.J. women’s prison causing tensions to run high
Updated May 10, 2021;
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The power has been out in a unit at New Jersey’s women’s prison since Saturday, causing great concern among advocates and families of prisoners.
Around 200 women have been housed without power since Saturday afternoon in the Stowe Unit at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, leaving the prisoners without heat or air conditioning, hot water or a working kitchen, according to multiple parents and advocates who have been receiving reports of the outage.
“It’s sad. It is a feeling of hopelessness,” one mother, who asked not be identified out of fear for her daughter’s safety, told NJ Advance Media. “We are just asking for proper treatment while they are doing time.”
Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)
Edna Mahan Correctional Facility
Threats from a possible federal takeover of New Jersey’s only women’s prison and inmate lawsuits are driving New Jersey’s efforts at reforming a culture that has allowed sexual assaults and harassment to continue unchecked for decades.
The coming reforms include body cameras for corrections officers, a system for monitoring officers’ behavior and an overhaul of policies, staffing and training as recommended by a consultant. But how effective they will be remains to be seen. Past efforts that included a zero-tolerance policy for sexual contact and officers’ training did not stop sexual assaults, which are just one glaring problem at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.
Oliver Barry, an attorney for a woman imprisoned at Edna Mahan, said Friday neither his client nor he have spoken to anyone from the group, but he would welcome the chance to offer recommendations on improving conditions at the prison.
Lydia Cotz, an attorney in a federal civil rights lawsuit representing a former inmate at Edna Mahan, said the prison failed for years to provide adequate care for her client and that if a consultant was needed to make systemic changes there, then “so be it,” but she added that a federal monitor should also be put in place, along with a consent order.
FREEHOLD - About six weeks after a Monmouth County jury convicted Brookdale Community College honors student Raquel Garajau in the murder of her pot dealer, an alternate juror came forward with allegations of juror misconduct.
“I believe that (defendant) did not receive a fair and impartial trial by fair and impartial jurors, the alternate juror wrote in an email to Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley, who presided over Garajau’s 2018 trial.
That information was revealed Tuesday in a decision by appellate judges rejecting Garajau’s appeal of her conviction in the murder of marijuana dealer Trupal Patel.
The appellate judges, upholding Garajau’s conviction, dismissed her claim of juror misconduct as well as 10 other arguments seeking a new trial.