Abused Inmates at New Jersey Female Prison File Class Action Suit Against State for Failure to Pay

Robert Walker

TRENTON, NJ – The abused women at New Jersey’s notorious Edna Mahan Correctional Facility are suing the State of New Jersey for violating their settlement agreement. Lawyers for the abused women, are claiming the state has failed to issue the victims timely payments as agreed upon by a settlement.

The attorneys for a class of thousands of women who suffered abuse at New Jersey’s notorious Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women allege in a new court filing that the state Department of Corrections has failed to issue timely payments to the class, in violation of the settlement agreement.

In 2021, the state agreed to a $21,000,000 settlement in a class action suit brought by 22 past and present inmates who suffered assaults and abuse by prison guards and other inmates. The prison has been known for fostering a notoriously abusive environment.

Just last week, it became known that several female inmates were assaulted and later gave birth to babies from transgendered inmates housed there.


Related: Prisoners at Female Only New Jersey Prison Pregnant By Other Inmate

The enforcement action, filed in state Superior Court on Thursday (Nobles et al. v. Anderson, et al. HNT-L-145-19, Brown et al. v. NJDOC et al., HNT-L-76-19), alleges the state failed to meet its April 11 payment deadline and that “judicial intervention is necessary to protect the rights of the class members.” The filing asks the court to compel compliance with the settlement agreement’s deadlines.

Related: 261 Inmates Request Transfer from Male to Female Prisons Under Transgender Law

Attorneys for the class described the state’s conduct as “extremely disappointing,” and noted that there have been previous issues with the state’s adherence to other aspects of the court-approved settlement

The class action settlement applies to all women incarcerated at Edan Mahan from 2014 through 2021. The Plaintiffs are represented by Oliver Barry (Barry, Corrado & Grassi, PC), Martin Schrama and Stefanie Colella-Walsh (Stark & Stark), Mark Frost (Mark Frost & Associates), and Shauna Friedman, David Cedar, and Gerald Williams (Williams Cedar, LLC). The Department of Corrections is represented by Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi, PC.

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