Within These Walls

The women prisoners in California jails are being punished twice over

This week a former Californian prison guard has spoken out about the ‘immoral’ and ‘dangerous’ policy of housing trans-identified males in the female estate.

In September 2020 we reported a on a newly enacted Californian law - SB 132 - which requires the state to house trans-identified inmates in prisons based not on their sex but on their gender identity. Under this law, inmates are asked privately during the intake process if they identify as transgender or non-binary and they can request their choice of male or female facilities. Such requests cannot be denied solely because of an inmate’s anatomy or because of “a factor present” among other prisoners. So intact trans-identified males - regardless of the nature of their crimes - can be housed with vulnerable female prisoners, even if those women protest.

Hector Bravo Ferrel began his career as a prison officer with the California Department of Corrections in 2006 and he has 16 years experience of supervising some of the state’s most dangerous criminals.

At the time SB 132 was passed, Ferrel was working at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men’s prison in San Diego. It houses nearly 3,000 men who have been convicted of crimes including murder, rape, and the sexual assault of children. He told the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) that, once this law was passed, these dangerous male offenders began ‘identifying as women’ in large numbers in order to demand intimate searches be carried out by female prison staff and in the hope of being housed in the female estate. “A lot of manipulation of the system”, he said. “They were excited. Like kids in the candy store.”

We have reported previously on the huge numbers of male prisoners claiming a trans identity in order to transfer to the female estate in California. According to official figures, in the first three months alone after the law came into effect, there were 255 requests for transfers to female prisons by trans-identified males.

According to FOIA records, 50% of trans-identified males in US federal prison who identify as women are sex offenders. 4W has reported that one-third of the men who request a transfer to California’s female estate are sex offenders.

In April 2021, The Post Millennial reported that one of the first male prisoners transferred to a women’s prison in California was murderer, Jason Hann (now calling himself Jessica Marie). Hann killed his own children, aged 2 months and 10 months, and hid their remains. He was incarcerated in San Quentin until a change in his ‘gender identity’ saw him moved to the Central California Women's Facility.

In May 2022, an inmate at the Central California Facility for Women attested that a fellow female prisoner was sexually assaulted by a trans-identified male incarcerated there. Mimi Le gave a sworn declaration to lawyers for the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) for use in its legal case against the State of California.

Her testimony concerns a ‘barely conscious’ female inmate who was carried out of her cell on a stretcher and taken to a medical-administrative building. Le testified that the woman had been sexually assaulted by Jonathan Roberston, a male inmate who ‘identifies as a woman’ and is known as Siyaah Skylit. Le said that he had launched into a violent tirade against the female inmates and spat at them. Multiple witnesses confirmed that he shouted at the incarcerated women, “Fuck all you bitches. I’ll rape you. I’ll rape your mama. I’ll fuck all you bitches up… There is nothing you bitches can do”.

Incidentally, Robertson obtained a transfer from men’s facility, Kern Valley State Prison (KSVP), to the Central California Facility for Women thanks to a campaign which was championed by Pink News.

This week, 4W reported that a trans-identified male housed in a California women’s prison has been charged with raping one of the female inmates.

52-year-old Tremayne Carroll has been incarcerated since 1998 and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life after falling foul of the USA’s ‘three strikes’ law. Although he is not technically considered a sex offender, one of his ‘three strikes’ felony offences was a kidnapping that included ‘forced oral copulation’.

Carroll served over 20 years in a men’s prison before the sudden onset of a trans identity; he now describes himself as “Born with boy parts and a girl’s heart”. He was transferred to the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in August 2021. By his own admission, Carroll is six feet tall and weighs almost 16 stone (99 kilos).

SB 132 is facing a legal challenge from four women who have all suffered harm as a result of this legislation. Carroll is one of four trans-identified male prisoners granted the right to intervene in this legal case. (Of course, they are represented by the ACLU.) In a sworn declaration to the court, Carroll stated, “I am not a threat” to the women incarcerated at CCWF.

Now a CCWF inmate known as Natalie is alleging that Carroll raped her. She says that she had been sharing a cell with him for only a few days when he attacked her in the shower and raped her. Carroll has been charged with two counts of felony rape. According to charges filed by the Madera County District Attorney’s office, there was at least one other victim at the prison besides Natalie.

Hector Bravo Ferrel told IWF that this legislation - SB 132 - offers sex offenders, the ‘perfect storm’ in which to indulge their predatory sexual behaviours. He described accommodating these men in women’s prisons as letting the wolf into the chicken’s den. “These are monsters. You give them a green light to go into women’s facilities, they’re chomping at the bit.”

He also spoke of the victimisation of female inmates whose voices are being ignored or deliberately shut down. “Each time a female inmate would try to voice her complaints or concerns, they would be retaliated against.”

Eventually, Ferrell felt he had to resign from his job, unable to collaborate with this unjust and dangerous system. “You have male inmates housed in female prisons and God knows what’s happening in those walls and in those cells”, he said. “I’m not talking about things in the past. I’m talking about what’s happening now, and this is why I left.”