Governor Murphy Announces Appointments to Advisory Board of the Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson
Governor Murphy Announces Appointments to Advisory Board of the Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson
TRENTON – Governor Phil Murphy today announced the appointments of Tess Borden, Carolyn Chang, and former Superior Court Judge Edward Neafsey to the Advisory Board of the Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson. The Advisory Board, which was established under the Dignity for Incarcerated Primary Caretaker Parents Act that Governor Murphy signed in January 2020, is responsible for advising the Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson.
“I am proud to appoint these exceptional individuals to the Advisory Board of the Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson,” said Governor Murphy. “The Board’s work and oversight is critically important in ensuring that the state’s inmate population is treated with the humanity, respect, and dignity they deserve. I am confident that these nominees will serve honorably and deliver recommendations for much needed reform in our state prisons.”
Tess Borden is a Staff Attorney at the ACLU-NJ, where she works on a range of civil rights and civil liberties issues. Prior to joining the ACLU-NJ in 2017, Borden was the Aryeh Neier Fellow at the National ACLU and Human Rights Watch (HRW) and authored the 196-page ACLU/HRW report “Every 25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States.” Borden has also worked for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands, and HRW’s West Africa Division in Dakar, Senegal, as well as spending time before law school as an immigration paralegal. Borden received her bachelor’s degree from Yale College, where she majored in French, and her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the International Human Rights Clinic and an editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. She clerked for the Honorable George A. O’Toole, Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Carolyn Chang is an attorney who practices family law in Burlington County and is known statewide for her legal acumen and passion for children and public service. As a former law clerk to the Honorable Judith Yaskin, PJFP, the Honorable Mary Ann Burgess, JSC and the Honorable J. Wilson Noden, JSC, Chang understands the importance of leading by example and the necessity to mentor other attorneys in the proper practice of law. To that end, after years of providing individual counseling to young attorneys and sharpening her legal skills as a Barrister with the Thomas S. Forkin American Inn of Courts, Chang helped found the Honorable Anne E. Thompson American Inn of Court, now known as the Honorable Marie White Bell American Inn of Court, where she currently serves as its Treasurer. In addition to her legal practice, Chang has shared her talents as a public servant in the capacity of Mayor and Committeewoman for the Township of Westampton, New Jersey. A resident of Westampton Township since 2002, Ms. Chang was elected in 2010 to the Westampton Township governing body and was sworn in as Mayor in January 2013 and served until January 2016. Chang received her Bachelor of Arts and her Juris Doctor from Rutgers University.
Edward Neafsey is an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School-Newark and has spent over 33 years in public service at the county, state, and federal levels. He was an assistant prosecutor, public defender, deputy attorney general, assistant counsel to Governor Tom Kean, Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement at the NJDEP during the Florio administration, Acting County Prosecutor, first State Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, Inspector General, Acting Director of State Police Affairs, and First Assistant Attorney General. After leaving the executive branch, he was a Superior Court Judge in the civil and criminal divisions in Monmouth and Mercer Counties. Appointed by the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Neafsey served two terms as Chair of the Court’s Minority Concerns Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and the Minority Defendant. Neafsey has firsthand experience with prison oversight, having prosecuted two major prison cases to victory. After graduating Assumption College and Southwestern Law School, Neafsey joined the U.S. Army as a Judge Advocate General attorney. He served as a Captain in the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas and in Germany. He was awarded an Army Commendation Medal for that service
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