Two inmates became pregnant after having sex with a transgender prisoner in New Jersey's only women's prison, the correctional institution "Edna Mahan'.
This was stated at a press conference by the Head of External Relations of the State Department of Corrections.
It is not clear whether the inmates have had relations with the same trans-identified inmate and whether they intend to carry the pregnancy forward. Prison officials have long been in the eye of the storm over allegations of abuse, specified that the reports would be consensual and announced an internal investigation.
Edna Mahan houses 800 female prisoners and since last year 27 transgender prisoners, i.e. trans-identified men, many of whom have not had genital surgery.
Transfers from men's prisons began in July 2021, as part of a settlement following the lawsuit filed in 2019 by theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a trans-identified man who had served a short prison term in a men's prison.
In 2021, two inmates at Edna Mahan reported being harassed by transgender inmates and initiated legal action to request the revocation of the policy of housing detainees on the basis of their "identity of gender'.. The women also reported that transgender detainees were engaged in sexual activities with female prisoners.
The union representing the guards at the facility also issued a statement against the facility's decision to house transgender inmates: "We opposed this change in policy believing that it would be detrimental to the general population of inmates housed at Edna Mahan and would cause additional stress to our correctional officers assigned to this institution," the union's president told NJ.com.
Maria Celeste
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