Two Inmates At New Jersey All-Women's Prison Pregnant After Consensual Sex With Transgender Prisoners: Report
April 14 2022, Published 12:45 p.m. ET
Two inmates at an all-women's prison in New Jersey are pregnant after having sex with transgender inmates, according to reports.
The women, who were not named, are inmates at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey, according to the Daily Mail.
Prison officials said that in both cases the sex was consensual.
According to the Daily Mail, it's unclear whether both had sex with the same transgender inmate.
Edna Mahan began taking in transgender women last year. They house some that have yet to undergo gender reassignment surgery. The facility has 27 transgender inmates and 800 inmates altogether.
The prison began housing transgender women as the result of the settlement of a lawsuit brought on by a transwoman and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
ACLU legal director Jeanne LoCicero defended the policy in an interview with NJ.com.
"[It's] in line with New Jersey's strong anti-discrimination laws that prevent discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity,' she told local news outlet.
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New Jersey Department of Corrections' external affairs executive director, Dan Sperrazza, told NJ.com that the sex was consensual.
"'[It's] in line with New Jersey's strong anti-discrimination laws that prevent discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity," she said.
Abuse has been reported at the jail, however.
Two prisoners filed a lawsuit that called for the transgender policy to end after saying they were harassed by such prisons, the Daily Mail reports. They also reported that transgender prisoners were engaged in sexual activity with cisgender inmates.
Edna Mahan began taking in transgender inmates in 2021 following a 2019 lawsuit by a transgender woman who said she was forced to live with men in prison for a year and a half, the Daily Mail reports.
Via the settlement, the woman, identified in court documents as Sonia Doe, got $125,000 in damages and $45,000 in attorneys' fees. She also won't be sanctioned in connection to an assault that took place in May 2019, according to the Daily Mail.
"When I was forced to live in men's prisons, I was terrified I wouldn't make it out alive. Those memories still haunt me," Doe said in a statement last year.
