A transgender woman placed in a men’s prison after alleging abuse has been moved to a women’s facility
A transgender woman placed in a men’s prison after filing a lawsuit alleging abuse at New Jersey’s Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women has been moved to an out-of-state women’s facility, according to her lawyer.
Rae Rollins had filed a lawsuit in March, alleging she was one of several inmates attacked by corrections officers at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton earlier this year. That incident triggered investigations ordered by Gov. Phil Murphy and by the state’s attorney general’s office.
However, the New Jersey Department of Corrections then moved her to a men’s facility, the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where she was listed as the only female inmate as of May 10, according to the state’s offender database.
Rollins is now being held at Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Muncy, a facility for adult female offenders, according to her lawyer and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections’ offender database listed Rollins as being housed in an out-of-state facility as of Tuesday afternoon.
Oliver Barry, a lawyer for Rollins, said he had been unable to speak with his client since her transfer, but that he believed the process had begun Thursday. Rollins arrived at SCI Muncy on Friday, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections.
“One of our goals in filing was removal of Miss Rollins from what in our position was an unsafe environment. That was one of the items of relief sought in the lawsuit,” Barry told CNN. “As of right now, Miss Rollins is no longer in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility.”
The New Jersey Department of Corrections did not answer CNN’s request for comment on the decision to move her. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.
