News & Commentary

The Legislature and Governor Murphy did their part by passing the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act four years ago. Now the DOC and county jails must ensure that the law lives up to its promise.

Winning Protections for Transgender People in Prison, From the Perspective of a Lawyer and a Transgender Woman

Early releases from prison in the pandemic in NJ — projected to exceed 8,000 from March 2020 to March 2022 — saved lives and showed the urgent human need for decarceration.

Young people with disabilities have a legal right to a free and appropriate public education, even when they are incarcerated. But for years, the educational needs of high school students in New Jersey’s state prisons were not being met. That’s changing now, and Brian Y. is a big reason why.

Two years after its creation, the Essex County Correctional Facility Task Force has not met some of its most basic responsibilities.

Reducing our prison population was necessary to save lives from COVID-19. Keeping our prison population down is necessary to save lives from an unjust criminal legal system.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections recently agreed to adopt a system-wide policy to help protect transgender, intersex, and non-binary people in prisons. This was the result of an agreement settling a civil rights suit brought by a woman who was forced to live in men’s prisons for a year and a half, represented by the ACLU of New Jersey and attorney Robyn Gigl of Gluck Walrath LLP. The new policy includes housing in line with gender identity, appropriate use of pronouns, access to gender-affirming property, and more.

The ACLU-NJ and Garden State Equality wrote every county jail urging new policies mirroring changes in NJ prisons respecting the rights of transgender people, the result of a civil rights settlement.

Incarcerated people, including immigrants in detention, are among the most vulnerable when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 16, 2020, the ACLU of New Jersey sent a letter to every county jail in New Jersey with recommendations to prevent an outbreak and minimize the virus’s impact.