Prison Nurse Allegedly Told to ‘Shut Up’ Inmates with Pills, Then Fired for Speaking Up
- Savannah Davenport, an RN from New Jersey, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer for wrongful termination.
- The suit claims she was told to administer medications to patients to "shut them up".
- Davenport suffers from autism and PTSD, lawsuit claims she was fired wrongfully because of her disabilities.
A former nurse at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women has filed a lawsuit against Rutgers University Correctional Healthcare, alleging she was terminated after reporting unsafe medication practices and facing discrimination over her disabilities.
Pressure to "Shut Them Up"
Savannah Davenport, of Phillipsburg, began working as a registered nurse in 2024 and told her employer she has autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Davenport claims supervisors and corrections officers pressured her to give inmates drugs that were not prescribed and to overlook the mishandling of narcotics. A corrections officer reportedly told her to "just give whatever medication they wanted." Another urged ibuprofen and Tums "to shut them up," even without orders.
Edna Mahan, New Jersey's only women's prison, has a precarious history that could lend weight to her claims. Federal probes have uncovered rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse and assaults, including a 2021 beating scandal involving high-ranking officers that led to indictments.
Hostility and Firing
When she reported the misconduct, Davenport said she was met with hostility and accused of being “rude and disrespectful,” which she believes was retaliation and a misuse of her disability-related symptoms to justify her firing in February 2025. Supervisors screamed at her, and after one aggressive encounter, she explained her autism made "reading between the lines" for social cues impossible — a trigger for her PTSD.
Following her firing, she complained through Rutgers Correctional Healthcare’s human resources department and was told that a “state investigation” had been opened. In April 2025, she was informed she would not be hired back.
Her February 2026 lawsuit cites violations of New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination and the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), the state’s whistleblower statute. David Koller, Davenport’s lawyer, calls her "brave" for reporting potential illegal conduct. He stresses CEPA's role in protecting workers who flag law-breaking, even if it invites punishment — a law upheld in prior prison healthcare whistleblower cases like Fleming v. Correctional Healthcare.
“This law known as CEPA is a very important law — it considers the challenges employees face when navigating a workplace where the employee thinks the law is being violated, and also considers that sometimes, speaking up might result in punishment or termination,” Koller said.
According to the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs, Davenport holds a compact registered nursing license that was issued in September 2022.
The case comes as the state works to replace the Edna Mahan facility with a new women’s prison in Burlington County. The new facility would hold up to 420 inmates and include modern architectural design and be more apt to the specialized needs of the prison and inmates.
Rutgers University and the Department of Corrections did not comment on the case.
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