TRENTON, N.J. – After an eight-hour Assembly hearing Thursday on the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, the four Republican lawmakers on the panel issued a joint statement and called for a top to bottom change in management starting with Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks and Corrections Ombudsman Dan DiBenedetti.
“We are disgusted that Governor Murphy has failed to take any sort of action. There is a complete lack of leadership from the top of the Department of Corrections that trickles down to the intolerable operations at the Edna Mahan women’s prison which requires a new commissioner and ombudsman immediately,” said the joint statement from Assemblywomen Aura Dunn (R-Morris), Nancy Munoz (R-Union) and Assemblymen Bob Auth (R-Bergen) and Christopher DePhillips (R-Bergen).
“It is clear to us the cancer has metastasized and the decades long damage can only be reversed by a complete change. Everyone has to go. The time for delay and investigation has passed.”