By: Victoria, WoLF Volunteer

Records requests submitted this summer to the state of Washington have revealed issues with the state’s method of assessing danger in its prison system. Women’s Liberation Front has acquired the assessment forms used by state officials in determining the likelihood that an inmate will be victimized or will commit assault. The official forms, shown below, reveal a serious shortcoming in how female inmates are evaluated for their risk of assault in prison. This shortcoming is made all the more obvious as the numbers of male inmates in women’s prisons increases and undermines the safety promised by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

For example, let’s create a hypothetical female inmate; we’ll call her Susan. Susan is a 4’11” woman, with a mental illness, and no history of violence, but this isn’t her first offense. Susan doesn’t like to think of herself as a damsel in distress, though. So, when asked if she feels at risk, she responds, “no.” If we add up the numbers on her form, we will see that Susan has scored a 10. By the state of Washington’s evaluation, she still falls one point short of being considered at risk of victimization. So, the next male inmate they decide to transfer in could be housed with her even if he has a risk profile that indicates that he is highly likely to predate. The prison is still responsible for Susan’s safety, but they are cut short from protecting her by their own methods of evaluation.

However, now consider a situation where Susan had experienced sexual trauma in her past. Those who have experienced sexual trauma are more likely to experience it again so that must be a consideration for Susan’s housing, right? Well, according to the federal government and the state of Washington, sexual abuse that occurs anywhere outside of prison should not be considered when determining a woman’s likelihood of being abused in prison. A woman who was abused before becoming incarcerated will NOT have her previous abuse factored into her risk profile within the prison system. Her male counterpart will if he has suffered abuse during his life.

This blatant failure to protect women is actually written into the advice provided by the PREA Resource Center, an outreach program of the Department of Justice, which works to teach jails and prisons about the national standards and laws involved in preventing prison rape. The resource center states:

“The questions used in screening adults […] include inquiries into previous sexual victimization. When screening women in a confinement setting, it is worth noting that women in the criminal justice system report more extensive victimization histories (including sexual and physical abuse) than women who have not been incarcerated, or men who have been incarcerated. Without a screening tool that differentiates between genders, patterned gender differences such as these could cause misclassification.”

The PREA Resource Center believes that so many women are abused before incarceration that their rates of abuse no longer matter when locked up. Because it happens to so many women, it is no longer important to their decision-making processes.

In addition to the issue of sexual trauma, other risk factors on the form also favor the characterization of male inmates as vulnerable while excluding female inmates who may be even more at risk. For instance, the average height for American males is 5’9” and the average height for American females is 5’4”, but the height to be considered more vulnerable is 5’8” for males and 5’0” for females. This means that a male inmate needs to be only 1 inch shorter than average to have his height added as a risk factor to his profile whereas a female inmate needs to be a full 4 inches shorter than average to have her size considered as a risk factor.

As more information trickles out of the state of Washington regarding the rape of a female inmate by a male who was transferred in due to his gender identity, it is worth noting that the state has created official parameters that classify women as “not vulnerable” while simultaneously putting them in tremendous amounts of danger. The system for risk-assessment cannot stand up to the pressures of mixed-sex housing and must not be made to. Tell your representatives today that you expect them to amend the Prison Rape Elimination Act and that you expect them to keep men out of women’s prisons.