State loses attempt to toss out female inmates' rights lawsuit

[flashl]

Friday, July 25, 2008
BY RICK HEPP
Star-Ledger Staff

A judge yesterday denied the state's request to throw out a lawsuit by female inmates who allege they are held in "lock-down conditions" at New Jersey's maximum- security prison, finding the claim, "if later found to be true, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment."

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil rights lawsuit in December on behalf of 40 women who were sent in March 2007 to New Jersey State Prison in Trenton to alleviate overcrowding at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton.

The women say they are kept in cells for up to 22 hours a day be cause the prison must separate them from the facility's 1,800 male inmates. As a result, the women claim they cannot access to the prison's law library and school, must receive medical attention in an open area of their unit as prison guards watch and are barred from the men's prison yard. They have also been subjected to catcalls from male inmates as well as views of prisoners exposing themselves.

State attorneys for the Department of Corrections have denied the allegations and said the women get the same treatment as male inmates. They also introduced a statement from a senior corrections officer on the unit who said "female prisoners have adjusted and are content."

In her ruling, Superior Court Judge Maria Sypek said the oppos ing views of the situation required the court to allow the lawsuit to continue.

Wonder which bonehead pencil pusher made this decision?

Without having the benefit of sleeping at a 'Quality Inn'?? last night, its understandable why the female inmates are in 'lockdown'. The point here is, if the facility is unable to 'accommodate' females, why are they there?