27-year-old Demi Minor was moved last month from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women to the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility — a prison for young adults in Burlington County, a New Jersey Department of Corrections spokesman said.
Minor, who is serving a 30-year sentence for manslaughter, is in a vulnerable unit in the new facility where she is the only woman, the spokesman said.
Minor wrote in a blog post on the website Justice 4 Demi on July 15 that she was placed on suicide watch at the new facility “due to the fact that I had hung myself in the van.” She claimed guards denied her request to be strip-searched by a female DOC officer.
“[NJDOC] have violated my right to be safe and free from sexual harassment, by putting me in one of the most violent youth Correctional facilities,” Minor wrote. “While living here at GYSC, I have found my self (sic) under attack by young inmates who are immature and just plain ignorant towards a person like me.”
She said she was briefly transferred to New Jersey State Prison, where she “was called he and him well over 30 times,” adding, “this has not happened to me in years being referred to primarily as a man.”
An earlier post stated that Minor was forcibly removed from the female prison and beaten during the transfer. The DOC declined to comment on the accusations but told NJ.com it was investigating.
“NJDOC cannot comment on any active investigations,” the agency said. “The Department has zero tolerance for abuse, and the safety and security of the incarcerated population and staff are of critical importance.”
Minor’s move comes months after it was revealed that she had impregnated two inmates while locked up at the female prison after engaging in “consensual sexual relationships with another incarcerated person.”
In 2021, New Jersey enacted a policy to allow prisoners to be housed in accordance with their preferred gender identity. The policy, which must be in place for at least a year, was part of a settlement from a civil rights suit brought by a woman forced to live in men’s prisons for 18 months.
The DOC said still operates under the policy but “the department is currently reviewing the policy for housing transgender incarcerated persons with the intention of implementing minor modifications.”
Housing decisions, the spokesman said, “are made within the parameters of the settlement agreement which requires consideration of gender identity and the health and safety of the individual.”
Minor will be eligible for parole in 2037.
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