New Jersey's Department of Corrections will soon begin moving women from the 110 year old women's prison, Edna Mahan, that has been the focus of numerous investigations due to patterns of abuse and prepared to build a $300 million facility in a more central location at a site still to be determined.

Governor Phil Murphy ordering the crumbling campus to close in June 2021 and is asking for $90 million in the next fiscal budget to pay for the first phase of the closure.

The first phase includes moving the more than 350 women from Mahan to the nearby former youth prison, a section of which has been reopened to temporarily house the women while the new facility is built.

But the question now remains where will they permanently move them and at what cost?

For that and more on the money trail.

Senior writer and projects editor Colleen O'Dea joins me to break it all down.

Colleen, this closure has been a long time coming.

Now, I understand there is a temporary holding place for these women.

But my question is, what is the permanent solution?

Where is that location?

It's a very good question.

And we don't have an answer yet.

We seem to to learn that there are two locations that are being considered most by the state.

They're in a central location they're near highways.

If I had to guess, I'm thinking Middlesex County.

Union County.

But I honestly I don't know.

There was a report done by a consultant that made some recommendations, and that has yet to be released.

The commissioner said during the budget hearings that the decision about which location is actually going to be the best location is still under review outside of her department.

So I'm thinking higher up the chain in the Murphy administration.

Right.

You know, $300 million.

That's a lot of money, Colleen.

What's being spent on?

So there's an awful lot of stuff that you've got to do, particularly with a prison.

You need a lot of security.

You need fencing.

They're going to move all of the cameras that they have spent a lot of time installing over to the new facility, as we know right now, about 150,000 square feet of mostly housing.

So these are modular units that they're putting in at first enough to accommodate about 434 women.

We don't have that many right now.

It fluctuates between about 350 and 390 at the moment.

There's also needs to be kitchen facilities and medical facilities and then beyond that.

So that's the first phase and that's about $90 million that will start very soon.

Beyond that, the total cost of 300 million then is also going to include permanent structures and some really kind of state of the art prison facilities.

So places for the women to meet with family, reentry spaces so that they can plan when they leave vocational training and of course then also better medical facilities and they're talking about a long term care infirmary facility because while most of the women are expected to leave, there are going to be some who may who are going to live long life there and who may die there and who may be very ill.

So there's an awful lot that's going to go into that facility.

And let's talk about leadership.

What role has that played in all of this?

So I think that Victoria Kuhn, who is the commissioner, has been on the job temporarily for probably about a year and a half, officially a little less than that.

But, you know, it sounds like everything that is happening now has just really come from which the way she's been driving it.

It's a very different leadership, as we understand it, from prior leaders.

And I and I certainly have to think that the fact that she is a woman means that she has really placed a great emphasis on all of the troubles that happen there all the sexual assaults that the physical assaults and and kind of trying to make sure that that culture there has changed.

And and from what we hear, it is changing.

Right.

Because no one deserves that.

No one deserves that.

Absolutely not.

You don't you know, you do something wrong.

You you are going to prison to both I guess, pay your penalty pay.

But but also to try to learn to come out and be a better person.

And certainly you did not sign up for going in and being assaulted.

Yeah.

After covering this for quite some time, I am happy to see that that prison is being closed.

But still a lot of questions that need to be answered, specifically that location.

And of course, you can remain up to date with Colleen O'Dea's reporting.

Excellent as usual.

Thank you, Colleen, for joining me.

Thank you very much Raven.