New Jersey
What Murphy said about 2 women at N.J. prison getting pregnant after consensual sex between inmates
![What Murphy said about 2 women at N.J. prison getting pregnant after consensual sex between inmates What Murphy said about 2 women at N.J. prison getting pregnant after consensual sex between inmates](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/KKD3S4OE7FGIXBEUW5TGLCX2YQ.png)
After 2 ladies put behind bars at New Jacket’s only women jail conceived adhering to sex with a transgender detainee, Gov. Phil Murphy stated Monday that difficulties with appropriately setting apart detainees at Edna Mahan Reformatory is “amongst the several factors” he has actually gotten the center to shut.
”Component of the factor to shut it — and also there are several, regretfully — is the lack of ability to set apart populaces based upon occurrences or actions,” Murphy stated throughout an unconnected public occasion in Ewing when asked to comment. “Which’s on a lengthy listing of reasons it needs to be shut which’s in procedure.”
The Clinton jail has actually dealt with extreme analysis in the last few years associated with employee sexually abusing and also manipulating detainees.
Murphy revealed in 2015 the state prepares to shut the jail after authorities discovered that modifications policemans had actually strongly removed ladies from their cells and also brutalized them n the center of the evening.
The case, described in NJ Breakthrough Media records, resulted in criminal costs versus 15 policemans and also forced state Division of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks to surrender.
It is vague when the jail will certainly shut. An independent screen remains to manage the center in the meanwhile.
The center was under restored focus recently when NJ Breakthrough Media reported regarding the maternities.
EVEN MORE: 2 ladies at N.J. jail are expectant after consensual sex in between prisoners, DOC states
It shows up both ladies detainees conceived from “consensual sex-related partnerships with an additional put behind bars individual,” stated Dan Sperrazza, the DOC’s outside events executive supervisor.
Sperrazza did not determine the prisoners concerned, yet Edna Mahan homes 27 detainees that determine as transgender.
He stated the examination is continuous.
“While DOC cannot talk about any kind of details corrective or real estate choices that might be thought about due to these occasions, the Division constantly schedules all choices to make certain the health and wellness of the people in its guardianship,” Sperrazza stated.
A negotiation contract with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jacket in 2015 proclaimed the state’s jail system need to house transgender detainees in accordance with their sex identification.
The negotiation originated from a claim by a transgender female that was sent out to a males’s jail, where she affirmed she obtained insufficient treatment and also was abused by male prisoners and also personnel.
Supporters hailed the contract as needed reform that relocated New Jacket to the leading edge of trans civil liberties, together with states like The golden state and also Massachusetts.
Most of transgender prisoners in the U.S. are housed behind bars according to their sex designated at birth and also are typically based on physical violence and also harassment, according to an NBC Information examination released in 2020.
Jeanne LoCicero, lawful supervisor of the ACLU’s New Jacket phase, stated the existing plan “mirrors finest techniques to make certain the health and wellness, self-respect, and also security of individuals in (DOC) guardianship.”
In 2015, 2 Edna Mahan detainees submitted a class-action legal action looking for to promptly get rid of “any kind of and also all male pre-operative transgender prisoners,” declaring that some had actually bugged them and also taken part in sex-related call with various other ladies.
In a sworn statement submitted on behalf of the legal action, one transgender detainee that had gender-conforming surgical procedure prior to she was put behind bars stated the DOC’s existing plan is “really suspicious.”
“I think it is extremely unacceptable for the NJDOC to put pre-operative male-to-female purportedly transgender prisoners in a females’s jail,” stated the female, that has actually been secured for greater than two decades.
Under the brand-new plan, when positioning a transgender detainee in a center, the DOC needs to take into consideration “all elements of a prisoner’s social and also clinical change,” consisting of behavior background, institutional change, total disposition, most likely communications with others, and also sensations of security.
Like with any kind of detainee, the plan additionally mentions that the DOC needs to take into consideration whether a person’s positioning would certainly provide monitoring or protection troubles in a center. The positioning is reflected on two times a year.
If the board entrusted with real estate transgender detainees has actually a “corroborated, trustworthy, and also non-discriminatory basis” to think that somebody is not genuine, it can ask additional inquiries and also permit the individual to offer even more info prior to they make a decision, according to the plan.
The negotiation contract mandated the DOC maintain the plan in position for at the very least one year prior to it can reassess its performance. It is vague just how this will certainly influence it moving on.
NJ Breakthrough Media personnel author Matt Arco added to this record.
Our journalism requires your assistance. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Brent Johnson might be gotten to at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @johnsb01.
Joe Atmonavage might be gotten to at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
New Jersey
Authorities Debunk Viral Explanation for NJ Drone Sightings
![Authorities Debunk Viral Explanation for NJ Drone Sightings Authorities Debunk Viral Explanation for NJ Drone Sightings](https://www.thedailybeast.com/resizer/v2/E745BU33BFCHZKROJWRMVTPQRY.jpg?smart=true&auth=f844a4ed88e8ae039ada3b4264d17328acd15b4ba41d1004415b11c4f41f55fc&width=1200&height=630)
The drones spotted over the Garden State were probably not looking for a missing shipment of radioactive material.
New Jersey
N.J. weighs making underage gambling no longer a crime, but subject to a fine
![N.J. weighs making underage gambling no longer a crime, but subject to a fine N.J. weighs making underage gambling no longer a crime, but subject to a fine](https://whyy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/slot-machines-atlantic-city.jpg)
Should underage gambling no longer be a crime?
New Jersey lawmakers are considering changing the law to make gambling by people under the age of 21 no longer punishable under criminal law, making it subject to a fine.
It also would impose fines on anyone helping an underage person gamble in New Jersey.
The bill changes the penalties for underage gambling from that of a disorderly persons offense to a civil offense. Fines would be $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second offense, and $2,000 for any subsequent offenses.
The money would be used for prevention, education, and treatment programs for compulsive gambling, such as those provided by the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.
“The concern I had initially was about reducing the severity of the punishment,” said Assemblyman Don Guardian, a Republican former mayor of Atlantic City. “But the fact that all the money will go to problem gambling treatment programs changed my mind.”
Figures on underage gambling cases were not immediately available Thursday. But numerous people involved in gambling treatment and recovery say a growing number of young people are becoming involved in gambling, particularly sports betting as the activity spreads around the country.
The bill was approved by an Assembly committee and now goes to the full Assembly for a vote. It must pass both houses of the Legislature before going to the desk of the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy.
New Jersey
New Jersey lawmakers will consider new tighter oversight rules on charter schools in 2025
![New Jersey lawmakers will consider new tighter oversight rules on charter schools in 2025 New Jersey lawmakers will consider new tighter oversight rules on charter schools in 2025](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/30/PAPP/75453680007-academy-charter-2.jpg?auto=webp&crop=2775,1561,x0,y416&format=pjpg&width=1200)
TRENTON — State officials are considering new rules that could impose greater oversight on New Jersey’s 86 charter schools after a year of increased scrutiny from media outlets and politicians.
The state’s Senate Education Committee heard testimony Monday from experts who urged lawmakers to ensure that existing oversight laws were enforced and, in some cases, to write new laws requiring more public disclosure and oversight in regard to spending and administrator salaries.
“Clearly, there’s some work to be done,” said state Sen. Paul Sarlo of the 36th Legislative District, which represents 11 municipalities in Bergen and Passaic counties. “There are some bad actors out there.”
The legislators cited a series of reports from NJ.com and other media outlets that took aim at charter schools’ high administrator salaries, allegations of nepotism, and accusations that some former school leaders personally profited from their positions. The Asbury Park Press also scrutinized a charter network with campuses in Asbury Park and Neptune.
Deborah Cornavaca, director of policy for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, urged legislators to establish a task force to review numerous impacts of charter schools, to require more transparency and add disclosure rules for charter schools.
“When we see things that are going wrong… it is incumbent upon us to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being responsibly spent and that the students… are the priority of where the money is going,” Cornavaca said.
Harry Lee, president of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, said that a majority of these publicly funded schools, which serve about 63,000 students, are not skirting rules, but are rather giving parents in low-income communities access to high-quality education. The schools are also improving academic outcomes for many of New Jersey’s Black and brown students, he said.
“In middle school, charter school students overall are outperforming the state average in reading, despite serving twice as many low-income students,” he said before the Senate Education Committee on Monday. “The longer you stay in a charter school, the more likely you will be able to read at grade level.”
While charter schools are given more flexibility than traditional district-based schools to educate at-need students, they also use taxpayer money in their mission. Yet, charter schools are not held to all the same oversight rules and regulations that district public schools must follow, according to critics.
“It is a privilege, not a right, to operate a charter school in New Jersey, and there are simply higher expectations (for positive academic results),” said Lee. “We stand by that, and we agree that there should be accountability for schools that aren’t doing the right thing.”
The flexibility given to charter schools is why they are succeeding where nearby traditional districts are not, he said. Many charter schools have adopted longer school days and a longer school year to achieve results, he said.
When charter schools fail to meet their educational missions, they are closed, Lee said.
“That is the ultimate accountability,” he added.
Since 2020, four schools have closed, surrendered their charter, or not had their charter contract renewed, according to the state Department of Education.
One of the charter schools that has faced criticism in the press is College Achieve Public Schools, which has sites in Asbury Park and Neptune. Michael Piscal, CEO and founder of the charter school group, made $516,084 in the 2022-23 school year, according to filings obtained through GuideStar, an organization that provides information about American nonprofit organizations.
Piscal also made an additional $279,431 in compensation that year from the school and related organizations, according to the tax documents.
For comparison, the average school superintendent pay in New Jersey was $187,737 last year, according to state Department of Education records.
A representative of College Achieve told the Press that administrative salaries have since between reduced.
State Sen. Vin Gopal, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said he expected amendments to New Jersey’s charter school law to be proposed sometime in 2025.
“There needs to be more accountability on how that (charter school) money is spent,” he said.
Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 16 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.
-
Business1 week ago
OpenAI's controversial Sora is finally launching today. Will it truly disrupt Hollywood?
-
Politics5 days ago
Canadian premier threatens to cut off energy imports to US if Trump imposes tariff on country
-
Technology6 days ago
Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT
-
Technology4 days ago
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change
-
Politics4 days ago
U.S. Supreme Court will decide if oil industry may sue to block California's zero-emissions goal
-
Technology4 days ago
Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit
-
Politics6 days ago
Conservative group debuts major ad buy in key senators' states as 'soft appeal' for Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel
-
Business2 days ago
Freddie Freeman's World Series walk-off grand slam baseball sells at auction for $1.56 million