Transgender woman sues county, jail officials
officials at the jail, Ms. Williams was raped and physically assaulted by that inmate — despite her cries for help and seeking assistance through the cell’s emergency call button.
“She suffered severe physical and emotional harm,” said Alec Wright, one of the attorneys representing Ms. Williams, 37, in her lawsuit filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas court. “It’s not just the male inmates that engage in this practice, but the staff, as well.”
The civil rights complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages related to three stays Ms. Williams had at the jail since 2015. Among the defendants listed in the lawsuit are Warden Orlando Harper, Deputy Warden Simon Wainwright, Capt. Stephanie Frank, Sgt. Jesse Andracsik, Cmdr. David Hungerman, Officer Michael Istick, Officer John Kubicky, Sgt. C. Radaci; psychiatric nurse Carla Ivan and other unidentified officers and a nurse.
Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for Allegheny County, said she would not comment on the pending litigation.
She did say, however, that the jail policy regarding transgender inmates requires that within 72 hours of admission, the inmate appear before a transgender committee made up of jail staff from medical, mental health, classification and administration — including majors and deputy wardens — who interview the inmate and then make a housing recommendation to the warden.
Ms. Downs would not comment specifically on Ms. Williams’ situation or whether that process occurred.
Sara Rose, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania working on Ms. Williams’ case, said that her client never went through that transgender committee process and that she was not aware it existed.
Instead, Mr. Wright said that his understanding is that jail staff assign inmates to their units based on gender assignment at birth, and that they give no regard to birth certificates or state identification.
“They don’t care,” he said. “It’s not taken into account.”
The lawsuit describes numerous instances over the three stays Ms. Williams had at the jail in 2015, 2016 and 2017, of her having to shower openly in front of male inmates and corrections officers; of her being harassed physically and called derogatory names; and of her being strip-searched and patted down by male officers.
For Ms. Williams, though, the 2015 sexual assaults were horrific. She said she remembered screaming for help when she would hear corrections officers’ keys jangling as they made their rounds through protective custody.
No one responded, and when they did listen, she said, “I was told a lot of times to suck it up.
“It is something I have nightmares about,” she said during a news conference Monday at the ACLU’s Downtown offices. “Being transgender, you go through something to become the person you can, and you get knocked down and have to start all over again.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s policy is to not identify victims of alleged sexual assault, but is naming Ms. Williams because she came forward publicly.
After she was released from jail in 2015, according to the lawsuit, Ms. Williams attempted suicide. When she was re-incarcerated in 2016, she experienced severe posttraumatic stress disorder and flashbacks.
Again, when she was released, the complaint said, she tried to kill herself.
Mr. Wright said that when Ms. Williams, whose criminal record dates to 2001, was incarcerated in July for burglary and drug possession, he sent a letter to the jail, with a recommendation from a mental health specialist at the jail, asking that she be placed with women or in a single cell. Instead, he said, the jail staff moved Ms. Williams on July 29 out of a mental health unit and into male general population.
The next day, according to the lawsuit, she was physically assaulted by a male inmate.
Two days after that, Ms. Williams was moved to protective custody in a single cell.
“This is a perverse problem that affects every transgender woman that goes through the jail,” Mr. Wright said.
He estimated that at least 20 transgender women have gone through the jail’s mental heath pod since July.
According to Amy Worden, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Corrections, there are currently 183 self-identified transgender or intersex individuals in the Pennsylvania prison system.
Although there have been a few lawsuits filed by transgender inmates, Ms. Worden said, they are not tracked specifically and instead are characterized as discrimination claims.
“To date, no court has found an issue with the DOC transgender policies or implementation,” Ms. Worden said .
The state DOC came into compliance with the final Department of Justice regulations in 2012 of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.
That legislation requires prisons to individually assess each transgender inmate to determine the best housing scenario.
Ms. Rose said Allegheny County does not do that.
“It is absolutely clear Allegheny County does not follow the law in that regard,” she said.