Resource: Kathleen Jones v. George W. Hayman

On December 12, 2007, the ACLU-NJ and the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) on behalf of more than 40 women in medium and maximum security prisons. The women were transferred from Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, a prison for women in Hunterdon County to a unit within the maximum security New Jersey State Prison (NJSP) for men. The women at NJSP were subjected to far worse conditions than the women at Edna Mahan they were also unable to move around the men's prison and were confined to one small unit. The conditions at Northern State Prison were more restrictive and the transported female inmates received fewer privileges than the maximum security men at NJSP. On July 21, 2008, the judge granted the ACLU-NJ’s motion for class certification and for an injunction prohibiting DOC from transferring any more women to NJSP while the case proceeded in court. The judge on that day also denied DOC's request to dismiss the case. On September 3, 2008, the DOC transferred all women at NJSP back to Edna Mahan. At the end of September 2008, the DOC filed a motion to dismiss and the judge granted their motion in May 2009. The case was settled at the beginning of July 2011.