Transgender convict sues MCI-Norfolk
Claims abuse in male prison
A transgender prisoner who says she is being humiliated and harassed by fellow inmates and prison guards is suing the Department of Correction in hopes of becoming the Bay State’s first transgender inmate to be transferred to a jail where she’d be housed among other women.
The 52-year-old prisoner, identified in the federal complaint as Jane Doe, suffers from gender dysphoria, and is behind bars at Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Norfolk, where she’s serving a three- to four-year sentence for a nonviolent, drugrelated offense.
The prisoner, who underwent a gender transition using hormone therapy in her teens, is asking to be moved to MCI-Framingham, where she could serve out the remainder of her sentence among other female inmates, according to the complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Boston.
She is also asking to be treated the same as any other female prisoner, including access to mammograms and female canteen items.
One of the woman’s attorneys, Jennifer L. Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said her client is one of many transgender inmates who are suffering in Bay State prisons.
“There are other transgender women who are housed in men’s facilities who face daily harassment, abuse, and diminishment as women,” Levi told the Herald. “It’s important for people to be recognized as who they are. ... She’s serving time for the underlying conviction, she shouldn’t be punished for being transgender.”
During the prisoner’s time at MCI-Norfolk, she says she’s been subjected to strip searches conducted by male guards, was forced to stand naked and handcuffed in front of male prisoners, and dreads showering because “male prisoners crowd into the bathroom excitedly,” according to the suit.
But prison officials told her she couldn’t be transferred to the female prison until she completed genital surgery, according to the lawsuit, which accuses them of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not transferring her as part of her recommended treatment plan.
“They have traumatized her by forcing her to live in a male correctional facility, subjecting her to strip searches by male correctional officers, forcing her to shower in view of male prisoners ... and refusing to address or refer to her using female pronouns,” the suit reads.
“In short, Jane Doe is a woman being forced to eat, sleep, shower, and live with men and without appropriate, reasonable accommodations that she needs. ...”
In addition to the Department of Correction, the prisoner is suing Corrections Commissioner Thomas A. Turco III, MCINorfolk Superintendent Sean Medeiros, Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator James M. O’Gara Jr. and Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Clinical Services Stephanie Collins.
The DOC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.