Transgender inmate who was raped, beaten will receive money

A transgender Colorado inmate will receive money from the state to settle a lawsuit filed after she was beaten and raped by men in her pod, and her fight will force the state’s corrections department to change its policies on how other transgender prisoners will be treated.

Lindsay Saunders-Velez will receive $170,000, including $10,000 for medical and mental health services, said Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for the attorney general’s office. The settlement was announced Wednesday.

Saunders-Velez’s lawyer, as well as LGBTQ and other civil rights advocates, were encouraged by the settlement, which adds more training for corrections officers, changes in the intake process and increased options for female products in male prisons.

The Colorado Department of Corrections said it evaluates transgender inmates on a caseby-case basis to determine whether they will be housed according to their gender at birth

or according to the gender they identify with while they are incarcerated. Currently, all state prison inmates are housed based on their biological gender, not their preferred identity, said Annie Skinner, a corrections department spokeswoman.

Still, Wednesday’s settlement marked a significant step for transgender inmates, said Paula Greisen, Saunders-Velez’s attorney.

“We’re extremely pleased the Department of Corrections, the state of Colorado and the attorney general’s office has been engaged in very productive discussion, not just about Lindsay’s case, but about fair treatment of the transgender community,” Greisen said.

As part of the settlement, Saunders-Velez, 21, was transferred to a Denver facility for male inmates a little over a month ago, Greisen said. She also will no longer be regularly stripsearched by male guards. And while her first choice was to be housed in a women’s prison, Greisen said her client finally feels safe.

“For the first time in a long time, she has hope,” Greisen said, recounting her meeting with SaundersVelez on Tuesday. “She feels her voice has been heard.”

Saunders-Velez is expected to be released from prison in October, her attorney said. She was sent to prison in 2017 for a probation violation.

In April 2018, a federal judge denied SaundersVelez’s request to stop the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City from placing her in a disciplinary pod occupied by four men who had previously propositioned her or threatened to rape her. Hours after the court’s denial, an inmate entered Saunders-Velez’s cell and demanded sex.

She said no. The inmate then violently raped her, Greisen said. SaundersVelez was hospitalized because of her injuries.

A year later, her case has led to changes that will impact transgender inmates across the state, Greisen said.

“Lindsay wouldn’t have agreed to this settlement without some of these systemic changes,” Greisen said.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Dean Williams, the state prison executive director, touted Colorado’s commitment to improved treatment of transgender inmates. Some of the changes included in the settlement are agencywide training for corrections department employees regarding the use of pronouns and “respectful interactions” with transgender offenders, a corrections department news release said.

The state also implemented a policy during Saunders-Velez’s litigation that allows transgender offenders housed in a male facility to access female hygiene and commissary items.

“Colorado DOC has worked diligently to develop and implement policies and procedures directly aimed at the fair, appropriate, and respectful treatment of transgender offenders,” Williams said in a statement. “We will continue to be inclusive and sensitive to the needs of all of our LGBTQI offenders.”

As for assigning transgender inmates housing based on their preferred identity, Skinner said the corrections department assesses transgender housing and work assignments every six months. A large portion of transgender offenders have indicated to the department that they do not wish to be moved from their current facilities, she said.

It was unclear Wednesday how long that policy has been in place and how the settlement will affect future housing decisions.

There are more than 130 transgender Colorado prison inmates who identify as female but are being housed in a men’s facility, Greisen said. She could not identify a single instance in which a person was placed in a facility based on their gender identity.

In 2018, the Colorado House of Representatives introduced a resolution asking the corrections department to evaluate its transgender policies because of the SaundersVelez lawsuit.

For transgender individuals, prison is an “extremely dangerous situation,” said Sara Neel, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Colorado. “Their needs should be taken very seriously, and what an individual wants should be top priority.”

Nationwide, about 3,200 inmates identify as transgender, and almost 40 percent report being sexually assaulted in prison, according to the ACLU. And nearly a third are placed in solitary confinement, mostly because they are vulnerable to attacks from other inmates.

Greisen said she hopes the settlement will give Saunders-Velez a fresh start for the future.

“Being a member of the LGBT community and advocating for human rights is a very difficult thing to do for a very disenfranchised community,” Greisen said. “She did it even though she paid a high cost.”