Colorado is poised to become the first state to offer “transgender women” inmates their own segregated housing units thanks to a class-action lawsuit.
Filed in 2019 by civil rights attorney Paula Greisen and the California-based Transgender Law Center, the suit accused the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) of tolerating the abuse of “transgender women” inmates like Taliyah Murphy.
“Murphy and other transgender women in Colorado had faced years of sexual harassment and often violence from staff members and fellow incarcerated people,” according to The Denver Post.
“They were denied requests for safer housing options and medical treatment, including surgery, for gender dysphoria, the psychological distress that some transgender people experience because of the incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity,” the Post originally reported in February.
“We were targets for victimizing, whether it was sexual assault, extortion, you name it,” Murphy told the Post at the time. “The guards just looked the other way.”
Speaking with Denver station KUSA this week, Greisen described in further detail some of this alleged abuse.
“One [transgender] woman described it as soon as the door of her cell unlocked she would run out and make sure she was visible to one guard so she wouldn’t be caught alone somewhere,” she said.
Murphy also spoke with the station.
Listen:
In the clip above, Murphy described an incident that occurred while incarcerated at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility.
“I won’t say the staff member’s name, but we were on our way to a transgender support group and she intentionally called us all out and she’s like, ‘Hi, gentleman!’” Murphy recalled.
“It was like somebody punching me in the stomach. Our punishment is to be separated from society. That does not give you the power or authority to further torment us in any way, especially like that. That’s just wrong,” Murphy added.
Murphy was reportedly contacted by Greisen in 2018, a year before the lawsuit was filed.
“To this day, I call her my angel,” Murphy said.
After contacting Murphy, Greisen continued contacting “transgender women” inmates who might be interested in partaking in the suit.
“I think when we started making the rounds, my reaction was probably very similar to how most people would react. I would come out of the prisons on a daily basis and cry,” Greisen told KUSA. “These are women and they’re being housed with men. The stuff that you would think would happen was happening on a horrific scale.”
Fast-forward to this year when, after six years of litigation, Greisen finally reached a settlement agreement with the CDOC “that included a $2.1 million payout and a consent decree that would mandate the prison system make changes to its policies when it comes to the care and housing of transgender women,” according to KUSA.
“The consent decree creates a list of items the DOC needs to address. That includes the creation of the state’s first-ever voluntary transgender unit, at Sterling Correctional Facility. It will house 100 transgender women and will build a pathway to get them into the general population at the women’s units,” the station notes.
“The decree will also create an integration unit at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. It will have about 40 beds. Transgender women will go there to adjust to living in a women’s prison. The goal of the new housing corridors is to create a safe space for transgender women, all while preparing them to join the general population at a women’s facility,” according to the station.
The latter point has not been well met by the public:
Men do not belong in women’s prisons, it’s absurd to even have to say this!
— boadicea (@Boudicca_uk_ua) March 16, 2024
So they’re going to eventually house the transgender males with the women??? How is that safe for the real women? Colorado sucks
— Jami (@MsArithmechick) March 16, 2024
The consent decree will also reportedly make “more gender-mutilation care and procedures” available to “transgender women” inmates.
“This is a landmark consent decree,” attorney Scott Medlock, one of the members of Greisen’s legal team, said. “This is really a huge change in how Colorado operates its prison system, and hopefully Colorado can be a model for the nation. I don’t think at all it’s an exaggeration to say that it will be lifesaving.”
For who? Many feel it certainly will not be the biological women who will eventually be housed with these “transgender women” inmates …
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Author: Vivek Saxena
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