In New Jersey -- in most situations -- you are what you say you are.

If you are thought of as a man but believe you are a woman, or vice versa, you can get your driver’s license or birth certificate changed to show the gender you prefer or to show none at all.

And if you are arrested and say you are transgender, you can be assigned to the prison for the identity you declare.

Being transsexual means someone has begun the medical transition from one sex to another, but being transgender does not require bodily changes.

So, I think it’s safe to assume there’s at least one transgender inmate in New Jersey’s Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women who behaved like a man – at least twice.

There’s no other explanation for two female inmates at Mahan announcing they have become pregnant after consensual sex with a transgender prisoner. And the prisoner in questions admits to impregnating the two. The prisoner, incarcerated since the age of 16, says she has asked repeatedly for medical transition but has not been treated.

When Gov. Murphy was asked about the situation, he said it was just one more reason to close the troubled facility. Last year’s biggest Edna Mahan scandal was the assault and battery of several female prisoners by angry guards. But there seems to be a scandal almost every year, usually female prisoners being mistreated by male corrections officers.

Mahan has existed since 1913 in Clinton, Hunterdon County, and has capacity for 709 prisoners but sometimes squeezes in more. Named for a justice reform advocate, it has three compounds, one for inmates of low risk, one for inmates of medium, and a third for offenders with mental health issues.

Females, 16 years and older, who are housed there can take educational and vocational classes, receive counseling for substance abuse, and learn to train guide dogs. Apparently, prisoners can mingle with some freedom in the buildings and around the grounds, and for years it has been clear guards don’t know everything that’s going on.

A year ago prison officials adopted the policy of letting prisoners define their own identity. Since Mahan is considered a more relaxed setting than the state’s institutional prisons, at least 27 self-declared transgender inmates reside there.

Neither they nor the pregnant women were publicly identified, and Murphy said the state did not have the ability to segregate prison populations based on incidents or behaviors, and that’s one of the reasons the facility needs to close.

Of course, closing Mahan doesn’t really solve the problem.

The policy to allow inmates to choose their identity came about as a result of lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a transgender woman who was sent to a men’s prison where she alleged she received inadequate medical care and was abused by male inmates and staff.

An NBC news investigation published in 2020 reported the majority of transgender inmates in the U.S. are housed in prisons according to gender assigned at birth and are often subjected to violence and harassment. Across the country, ACLU chapters are advocating for states to adopt policies similar to New Jersey’s to protect the rights of transgender inmates.

The situation in New Jersey won’t help their cause. I expect many opponents will point to the pregnancies in Mahan as an example of what could go wrong.

Here groups are already demanding New Jersey refine its policy to take into consideration “all aspects of an inmate’s social and medical transition,” including behavioral history, institutional adjustment, overall demeanor, likely interactions with others, and feelings of safety. Prison officials, they say, must also consider whether an individual’s placement would present security problems in a specific facility.

A former assemblywoman from Jersey City, Joan Quigley is the president and CEO of North Hudson Community Action Corp.

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