Male Prisoner Told to Pose as Transgender for Access to Female Inmates

(LibertySociety.com) – In the last several years, Democratic states and cities have passed legislation or implemented policies that allow men who identify as women to be housed in female prisons. Females who identify as men are also allowed to be housed in male prisons, but it is far less common. Back in April 2022, a trans-identified biological male was sent to prison for seven years after being convicted of raping a female prisoner in a bathroom at the Rose M Singer facility on Rikers Island in New York City. Now a former female inmate is suing the city for damages after she was allegedly wantonly assaulted by a man who identified as a woman so that he could be housed with female prisoners.

The plaintiff, listed as Rose Doe, filed the lawsuit with the Bronx Supreme Court in November 2023. According to records obtained by the plaintiff, the trans-identified man was under investigation for participating in a prostitution ring during the period that he was sent to the Rose M Singer Center. Staff members and other inmates were involved in the prostitution ring, which the plaintiff claimed was the reason the biological male was sent to the only female facility on the island. According to the lawsuit, several officials at the Department of Corrections cited the city’s policy on transgender inmates to justify keeping the male inmate in the female facility.

The plaintiff also alleges that the man was “instructed” to identify as transgender to remain in the facility and recruit females into the prostitution ring. Doe said that she was initially assaulted in April 2022, just a few months after the man arrived. She also claimed

in the lawsuit that she witnessed him coerce another female into performing lewd acts on him. Doe said that the female was suffering from a mental illness. Doe also alleged that the male inmate said he was “straight and not trans,” and was there to engage in intercourse with women, just hours after entering the facility. Doe said that she was not given proper medical care after reporting the assault, which was a violation of public health law in New York.