Inmates at New Jersey’s lone prison for women, tucked away in the state’s rural northwest, are routinely raped and groped by male guards who act with impunity, knowing that their victims are powerless.

Women who complain have been shackled, strip-searched, and put in solitary confinement for up to three days, just like the inmates who break the rules.

As for the cameras that are supposed to expose the rapists, the problem for years has been the blind spots, including one in a storage room where someone thoughtfully placed a bare mattress. Besides, very often no one is watching the monitors anyway, and no one bothers to review the records as required.

I know the pandemic is the big issue right now. But the unchecked sexual violence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, described in horrifying detail by the U. S. Department of Justice after a two-year investigation, demands an urgent rescue operation.

“Sexual abuse of women prisoners by Edna Mahan correction officers and staff is severe and prevalent throughout the prison,” the DOJ report, released on Monday, concludes. “Women have suffered actual harm from sexual abuse and are at substantial risk of serious harm because the systems in place at Edna Mahan discourage prisoners from reporting sexual abuse and allow sexual abuse to occur undetected and undeterred.”

If Gov. Phil Murphy wants to protect these women, as he must, then he needs to do what the alcoholics do: Admit he has a problem and seek help.

Time’s up. This problem was no secret when Murphy took office more than two years ago, and he has failed to fix it. The obvious remedy is to invite the Department of Justice in to help make repairs under the supervision of a federal judge.

New Jersey has done it before. When the DOJ found systemic racism in the State Police in 1998, federal oversight led to dramatic improvements. When it found the state failed to protect children from abuse in 2003, federal oversight had similar success. And when it found unchecked racism in the Newark police, it intervened there as well, an effort that is still underway.

Murphy, so far, is having trouble with that first step, admitting that he has a problem. His reaction to the searing DOJ report was to cover his own tail by blaming this “black mark” all on Gov. Chris Christie.

“It’s a situation we inherited, and we have taken a whole range of steps to address the situation we inherited,” Murphy said.

The Department of Corrections hit the same note, saying the DOJ report “focused on events that occurred under a previous administration.”

Give them this much: They’re right about Christie. This problem exploded into public view a year before he left office, when four guards at Edna Mahan were charged with sex crimes against inmates, and when the Star-Ledger published a blockbuster investigation by Sean Sullivan that prompted the federal investigation in the first place. Rank this high on Christie’s list of sins, way above Bridgegate.

But the report is blistering about Murphy’s failure to fix the problem as well, even as the convictions piled up.

“They have failed to remedy this constitutional violation,” the report concludes flatly. “Credible allegations of sexual abuse by both corrections officers and civilian staff continued to surface throughout 2018 and 2019, despite the attention focused on the issue.”

This is a problem for Murphy. He knew about the sexual abuse at the prison during his first few months in office, when the Senate held hearings on sexual violence at the prison, and still, one of the few cabinet officers Murphy kept from the Christie team was Gary Lanigan, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections, who refused to testify at those hearings. When the issue derailed Lanigan’s nomination, Murphy appointed Lanigan’s chief of staff, Marcus Hicks, an unlikely candidate to force the needed cultural changes.

Murphy has made some changes, like appointing a female oversight board, hiring more female guards, installing more cameras, and inviting federal experts in to train guards on rape prevention. But the rapes have continued, and the DOJ report says inmates are still in danger, and that the culture hasn’t changed.

“It’s outrageous,” says Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester. “Anyone who knew about this in Corrections should be immediately fired.”

Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, said she will convene the women’s working group she formed after the Katie Brennan scandal to discuss the prison via Zoom, and Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Mercer, who conducted the 2018 hearings, said she will soon open a fresh set of hearings on the DOJ report, remotely as well.

Will Murphy agree to federal oversight? His office won’t comment.

Weinberg says the governor should concede defeat and welcome federal intervention, and Greenstein said she is open to the idea. “What we’re doing now is clearly not working,” Greenstein said.

The DOJ report gives Murphy less than two months to fix these problems, or face a federal lawsuit based on its preliminary finding that the conditions at the jail violate the Constitution. So, this could drag out for a long time if Murphy decides to push back.

The delay would undoubtedly subject more women to rape. The DOJ report notes that between October 2016 and November 2019, a three-year stretch, five guards at the prison and one civilian were convicted of sexually abusing 10 different women. No doubt that’s a fraction of the real number, given the threat of retaliation.

Please, governor, don’t fight back. Yes, it will be embarrassing to admit this problem festered on your watch. But protecting these women is an urgent moral imperative. It’s time now to call in the federal cavalry, even as the pandemic rages.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.