The Special Treatment Unit is a facility in which civilly committed sex offenders are held, pursuant to the New Jersey Sexually Violent Predator Act of 1998 (N.J.S.A. 30:4-27.24 to -27.38). It is operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and is located in a separate building within East Jersey State Prison in Avenel, New Jersey. It is near the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, New Jersey's center for incarcerated sex offenders, also in Avenel. Residents of the three facilities interact only with the residents in their own facility. In 2016, its population was 428. [1] Since the program's inception in 1999 (at a different location), [2] about 15% of the 579 sex offenders who were civilly committed in New Jersey have been discharged to the community after treatment. The state estimated in 2016 that there were 15 patients at Avenel who were convicted as juveniles but were sent to Avenel, indefinitely, once they completed their sentences. Public defenders and attorneys for the residents put the number at 30. [1]
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature; however, some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the crimes which usually result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are: a second prostitution conviction, sending or receiving obscene content in the form of SMS text messages (sexting), and relationship between young adults and teenagers resulting in corruption of a minor. If any sexual contact was made by the adult to the minor, then child molestation has occurred. Other serious offenses are sexual assault, statutory rape, bestiality, child sexual abuse, female genital mutilation, incest, rape, and sexual imposition.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) is responsible for operations and management of prison facilities in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The department operates 13 major institutions—seven adult male correctional facilities, three youth facilities, one facility for sex offenders, one women's correctional institution and a central reception / intake unit—and a Stabilization and Reintegration Program. The department is headquartered in Trenton.
East Jersey State Prison (EJSP), originally "Rahway State Prison", was established in 1896 as the first reformatory in New Jersey. It is a maximum-security institution operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections, housing approximately 1,500 men as of 2013.
In 2016, Gary Lanigan, the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and a host of others were hit with a class action suit filed by detainees. They claim their civil rights are violated because they are not provided "adequate and meaningful mental health treatment" (necessary for their possible release) due to "systematic deficiencies." The complaint also says that in addition to the reportedly inadequate treatment, plaintiffs have "been confined in punitive conditions" that overstep the goal of the Sexually Violent Predator Act. Plaintiffs seek redress for the defendants’ alleged preference to "warehouse" such offenders out of sight in an attempt to indefinitely detain and punish, rather than treat supposed mental disabilities. [3] "Individual counseling" at the facility is described as "uncommon". [4]
A class action, class suit, or representative action is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member of that group. The class action originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, but Canada, as well as several European countries with civil law have made changes in recent years to allow consumer organizations to bring claims on behalf of consumers.
