Changes urged in treatment of transgender inmates at jail
Judge leaves hearing amid heated discussion
Facing complaints that the special jail oversight board hearing he had called to discuss the treatment of transgender inmates would not amount to anything, board chair Judge David Cashman walked out early, flanked by two sheriff’s deputies, leaving the meeting to go on without him.
Former Allegheny County Jail inmates who are transgender and other advocates told members of the jail oversight board that they were exposed to violence and harassment from both fellow inmates and corrections officers at the jail, with transgender women often being housed with men.
“They’re housed incorrectly. We have to look at systematic transphobia. Systematic transphobia is housing women who identify as women with men. Guards have also endangered those women,” said Ciora Thomas, executive director of SisTers PGH, an advocacy and transitional housing organization for transgender people.
The county is fighting a 2017 lawsuit, now in federal court, filed on behalf of Jules Williams, a transgender woman who was housed with men despite being legally recognized by Pennsylvania as a woman. Ms. Williams was repeatedly raped by a male inmate.
Ms. Thomas regularly appears at the jail board’s monthly meetings to urge the board to change how the jail houses transgender people and to fire the warden, Orlando Harper.
Other advocates at the meeting recounted violence perpetrated against them, violence they had seen, and instances of being treated as members of their birth or legal sex, rather than according to their gender identity, while in the jail.
Before walking out of the meeting, Judge Cashman, of the county Common Pleas Court, asked that advocates hand over specific allegations, with names of victims and perpetrators. One person, former inmate Lorenzo Rulli, said he had done exactly that following the previous jail board meeting.
“I haven’t been contacted. You took my name last [ time],” Mr. Rulli said.
Mr. Rulli also said that while he was in the jail, “There was a trans woman who was held with men, who were threatening her while I
was there. There was only one trans woman who was in processing while I was there, so you can figure out who it was.”
Vanessa Carter, a transgender woman, said she was housed with men and had “male” posted on her door while at the jail.
Deputy Warden Laura Williams, who represented the jail administration at the meeting, said that while a transgender inmate who identifies as a woman will go before an internal “gender review committee” for a recommendation to the warden regarding their housing, “initially she will be housed according to her legal gender.”
“I understand that there may be objections to that,” Deputy Warden Williams said.
Advocates asked for the jail to make public the questions asked as part of the gender review, as well as the members of the committee.
At one point, two sheriff’s deputies, in addition to the two present from the beginning, entered the room. Some voices had been raised and profanity used, but one man who attended the meeting noted, “Nobody was threatened. This is an intimidation tactic.”
After one of the newly arrived deputies got into an argument with an advocate over cursing, Judge Cashman said, “We’re done,” and walked out of the meeting with the recently arrived deputies.
The advocate, identified only as Nique C, said, “Me being a nonbinary individual, my pronouns are they ... He called me ma’am. This is a meeting for trans people, and you invite in a bully to misgender me.”
The meeting continued without Judge Cashman, and the advocates promised they would be at the regular board meeting Thursday.
Kimberly Andrews, a recent inmate who has an active lawsuit against the county for holding her in solitary confinement despite a history of mental health issues and attempting suicide, challenged members of the board to take active measures to change jail policy.
County Controller Chelsa Wagner, a member of the board, told the advocates that while she believes the statute creating the board gives it the power to make changes, in practice the real power lies with county Executive Rich Fitzgerald. “Our board is powerless, because all the decisions go back to the county executive,” she said.
Ms. Wagner suggested that Mr. Fitzgerald’s representative at the hearing, Deputy County Manager Barbara Parees, might be able to offer some answers.
“Give us three recommendations,” Ms. Andrews asked of Ms. Parees.
Ms. Parees did not give any specifics, but said, “I will let him know everything that went on here.”
Deputy Warden Williams suggested that the advocates and members of the board could “hammer [ issues] out in a small working group,” but Ms. Thomas said a similar task force with Mr. Harper in 2015 proved to be unproductive.
“That’s a waste of time,” Ms. Thomas said. “He needs to go.”
Following the meeting, Ms. Wagner said she would seek to have data on transgender inmates and complaints included in the monthly health and staffing report supplied by the jail. She also suggested that if there is not enough money for the jail to create a special pod for transgender inmates, perhaps some could be diverted to alternative housing.