Julia is a writer specializing in women's issues and the criminal justice system. She has an MSc in Criminal Justice and lives in NY. You can reach her here.

This article is part of WoLF's Imprisoned: Women Behind Bars series, focusing on incarcerated women's experiences. Read the first entry here.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Men in Women's Prisons  

Every night someone stands watch. Confined to a shared cell, the women take turns staying awake. The person on watch is tasked with remaining alert and vigilant. This process has become their new norm ever since the new inmate arrived. An intact man, the new inmate has been living alongside the women, quite literally, in their cell, in a women's prison. Although the inmate self-identifies as female, the newcomer is clearly a man. Any doubts that existed were cleared up in the showers—there's scant privacy in prison. 

This absurd and harmful reality is a result of federal and state regulations that allow male prisoners to be housed in the prison that matches their "gender identity." Across the country, states are implementing policies that prioritize the requests of men over the safety and dignity of female inmates. Unsurprisingly, these policies have real and foreseeable harm to female inmates.  

Traditionally, prisons have been separated by sex to protect women from male violence. Allowing men to "self-identify" their way into women's prisons violates internationally recognized rights of prisoners as laid out in the Geneva Conventions, the foundation of modern international humanitarian law. Convention III states that "in any camps in which men and women prisoners are accommodated together, separate dormitories and conveniences shall be provided for women." Furthermore, women prisoners of war "shall be under the immediate supervision of women." And yet, the United States (and the UK) sees fit to ignore these protocols and house men who claim a transgender identity in women's prisons.

Men are far more likely than women to be incarcerated for violent crimes. Men commit seventy-nine percent of violent offenses (Bureau of Justice Statistics) and men are responsible for nearly all (99%) of sexual offenses (U.S. Dept. of Justice Report). By contrast, women are incarcerated primarily for property and drug offenses.

Nearly half of trans-identifying male federal inmates are serving time for sexual offenses. Data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows that one-third of men who request transfer to women's prison are registered sex offenders. Advocates for gender identity policies insist that trans-identifying male inmates ("transwomen") pose no danger to women.

In reality, men, even after cross-sex hormones and/or surgery, retain male levels of criminality. Some trans-identifying men stop hormone treatment after transferring to women's prisons, enabling themselves to have erections. 

A Prospective Predator's Paradise 

As any criminologist knows, offenders — especially sociopaths, who make up a large percentage of prisoners — are constantly looking for ways to game the system. Faking illnesses to get moved to the infirmary is not uncommon. Given the opportunity, many offenders will do whatever they can to secure an easier daily existence, even if it means pretending to be “transgender.”

"It has been rather naively suggested that nobody would seek to pretend transsexual status in prison if this were not actually the case. There are, to those of us who actually interview the prisoners, in fact very many reasons why people might pretend this," states Dr. James Barrett, president of the British Association of Gender Specialists. "These vary from the opportunity to have trips out of prison through to a desire for a transfer to the female estate (to the same prison as a co-defendant) through to the idea that a parole board."

In one particular case, Barrett found "a plethora of prison intelligence information suggesting that the driving force was a desire to make subsequent sexual offending very much easier, females being generally perceived as low risk in this regard" (Evidence submitted to UK Parliament). 

Predictably, when California announced the adoption of self-ID for prison, more than 200 male inmates requested transfers to women's prisons. Were the majority of these men lying about being “transgender”? The answer doesn't matter. Men, regardless of how they identify, exhibit the same behavioral patterns. Male inmates who claim a trans identity do not have to prove they "identify" as women. Surgery and cross-sex hormones are not required. In fact, the majority of men housed in women's facilities retain their penises and are heterosexual. 

Housing men in women's prisons has caused pervasive, foreseeable, and well-documented physical and psychological damage to incarcerated women. Gender self-Identification policies put women at increased risk of sexual assault, unwanted pregnancy, and emotional and physical distress. Add to this the fact that: men are, on average, larger and stronger than women.

Female inmates have been intimidated, sexually harassed, and even sexually assaulted by male inmates. Many of these women are emotionally fragile and some suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of past abuse. In fact, more than 86 percent of female inmates have experienced sexual violence and 77 percent have experienced domestic abuse — before incarceration. These women are very likely to fear men.

Single-sex prisons provide female inmates with a place to improve themselves and heal while they serve their sentences. The intrusion of men into the spaces has resulted in emotional and even physical and sexual harm to the women. "Women prisoners who are re-traumatized by the presence of male bodied individuals — especially in rehabilitation programs that may well be discussing male violence — cannot simply leave and find another group to attend," explains author and criminology professor Jo Phoenix.

Nowhere to Hide 

Female inmates are trapped with nowhere to escape — men are in their showers, common areas, yards, and cells. "The vast majority of women in prison now live in a state of fear, defensiveness, and 'flight or fight' mentality," states Ayanna Green, a formerly incarcerated woman who supports the lawsuit Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) has filed against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "Since women in prison cannot 'flight,' their options are to accept being threatened with male violence and intimidation…or try to be prepared to defend themselves and fight back if attacked." 

Prison policy prohibits inmates from engaging in sexual acts but that policy is difficult to enforce. Corrections officials, despite feigning ignorance, know that housing male offenders in women's prison is a recipe for disaster. In anticipation of the influx of intact men into women's prisons, California officials distributed condoms and Plan B to female inmates. They were fully aware that sexual activity, consensual and non-consensual, was bound to occur. The condoms were meant to prevent pregnancy and HIV infections. On the opposite coast, Demetrius Minor, a man convicted of manslaughter and carjacking, impregnated two women at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, New Jersey's only women's prison.

Shockingly, male inmates who have been convicted of sexual offenses, including rape, are still eligible for transfer to women's prisons in several states. Additionally, inmates convicted of heinous crimes against women and children have been granted transfer to women's prisons.

Serial killer Harvey Marcelin, aka Marceline Harvey, served more than 50 years in prison for murdering two girlfriends. Released from prison in 2019, he stands accused of dismembering a female friend. Despite a history of horrific violence against women, Harvey is being housed in the women's unit of Riker's Island in New York.   

In California, Krystal Gonzales was sexually assaulted by a man who self-identified as female. When she filed a complaint, the prison staff referred to her attacker as a "transgender woman with a penis." Gonzalez is a plaintiff in the lawsuit WoLF filed challenging the law allowing men to be housed in women's facilities. Gonzalez is just one of many women who have been attacked or sexually assaulted by male inmates who have been transferred to women's facilities.

"Prison rape is nothing new," writes Amber Jackson, an incarcerated woman who pens a column for the Santa Monica Observer. "However, until now there were never live males with full anatomy sharing showers with us in a group shower room."

In Washington, a whistleblower reported that a male inmate raped a female inmate upon arrival at the women's facility. The inmate "is a proven sexual predator, having committed multiple crimes against women," the employee told KIRO Radio. He has "fully functional male genitalia, a history of violence and sexual depravity in the community."

In a statement opposing self-identity policies, Amanda Stulman, USA Director of Keep Prisons Single Sex, wrote, "The law does not articulate an exclusion for males who have been incarcerated for sex crimes against women or girls, or who are registered sex offenders, or who have committed prior criminal acts of abusing women."

The accounts of attacks and sexual offenses committed by trans-identifying men against female inmates continue to occur. Here are just some of those men: 

• Ramel Blount, aka Diamond Blount, is a man housed in the women's section of New York's Riker's Island City jail. He raped a female inmate as she was exiting the shower in 2021. Blount, who identifies as trans, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

• Richard Masbruch, aka Sherri Lashure, was convicted of a brutal rape, sodomy, torture, and burglary in 1991. After amputating his penis, he was transferred to a women's prison where he used foreign objects to rape several female inmates. 

• Rodney James, aka Shiloh Heavenly Quine, was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life in prison. He has been accused of sexually harassing and intimidating female inmates. James, incidentally, was the first inmate in the country to receive “sex reassignment” surgery on the taxpayers’ dime. 

• Andre Patterson, aka Janiah Monroe, has an extensive rap sheet that includes convictions for second-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery, and attempted aggravated arson. At 17, he strangled his male cellmate to death. While housed in a women's facility, he was responsible for multiple instances of sexual misconduct against female inmates.

• Michael Cole, aka Michelle Cole, has a long criminal record that includes murder and assault. He is accused of raping his female cellmate while in custody at the Justice Center in Hamilton, Ohio.

• David Warfield, aka Dana Rivers, was found guilty of the murders of a married lesbian couple, Patricia Wright and Charlotte Reed, and their 19-year-old son. He is expected to serve his time in a woman's facility.

• Douglas Perry, aka Donna Perry, is serving a life sentence for murdering three prostituted women. He is housed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

• Thomas Preston Lamb, aka Michelle Renee Lamb, began identifying as “transgender” once incarcerated for the kidnapping of one woman and murder of another. Lamb was serving three life sentences and is serving his time in the only women’s prison in Kansas.

• Shawn Merle Gustafson is serving 30 years to life for molesting two children under 10. He is housed in the California Institution for Women and has been reportedly placed into segregation multiple times for sexual infractions since his transfer.

• Eric Padilla, aka Lydia Helena Vision, was convicted of attempted murder and is serving his sentence in Logan Correctional Center, a women's prison.

• Andrew Balcer, aka Andrea Balcer, stabbed both of his parents and killed the family dog. He is being housed in the women's section of the Maine Correctional Center.

• Nicholas Secondino, aka Nikki Secondino, was arrested for murdering his father with a hammer and stabbing his 19-year-old sister. He is being held at the women's unit in New York's Riker's Island jail.

In her testimony to the California Senate Rules Committee against the appointment of Jeffery Macomber as Undersecretary of Operations, Lauren Adams Bone, WoLF Legal Counsel, quoted from a letter penned by an incarcerated woman who wrote:

This is the most malicious way to tell an abused woman what we went through wasn't important. Despite our trauma, we are forced to live, shower, and coexist with our pain by bringing men in to our only way of living safe to be able to rehabilitate. Tell me how is that in any way humane. It's not. You are sacrificing our safety to keep a few men quiet. I'm disgusted by the actions of those in power. I hope this letter reaches a honestly caring hand.

Outrage Overseas

In recent weeks, the UK public was outraged by Scotland's plans to allow male prisoners to self-identify into women's prisons. While Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon championed the policy, the press revealed that a trans-identifying male rapist was being assessed for transfer to a women's-only prison. The backlash was swift. Scotland ditched the policy, and Sturgeon was left with egg on her face. It is unclear how heavily the debacle influenced her decision to resign.

By contrast, here in the United States, the public is mostly in the dark about the situation in women's prisons. Legacy media remains mum on the issue unless there's news of a crime or pregnancy.

ADVOCATING FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN

WoLF is actively fighting for the rights of female prisoners — seeking justice for their loss of privacy and opportunities for rehabilitative programming, psychological anguish, constitutional rights violations, intimidation, sexual harassment, physical assaults, and sexual assaults.

WoLF has filed a lawsuit on behalf of four incarcerated women, challenging the California law that allows men to "self-identify" as women or “non-binary” and be housed in women's facilities. WoLF is asking the court to overturn this law and declare it unconstitutional. You can read more about WoLF’s litigation efforts to protect incarcerated women and the Chandler v. CDCR lawsuit here. 

The ACLU and other advocacy groups representing incarcerated men who want to be housed in women's facilities have petitioned the court to be added as parties to the case. The ACLU filed a brief arguing that the state cannot deny men’s transfer requests due to “convictions or disciplinary history.” They demanded "full implementation" of SB 132 — the placement of 300+ men in women's facilities. Should this demand be granted, the consequences for female inmates would be dire.

READ LETTERS FROM INCARCERATED WOMEN

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