Transgender inmate sues state over prison rape claims

July 24, 2007 Southern Voice

A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by
a male cell mate went to court this week to challenge a state policy
that assigns inmates like her to men's or women's prisons depending
on whether they have undergone sex-change surgery. Alexis Giraldo,
30, claims that Folsom State Prison guards ignored her complaints of
abuse and returned her to the same cell until a subsequent assault
got her placed in protective custody and eventually moved to another
facility.

A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by
a male cell mate went to court this week to challenge a state policy
that assigns inmates like her to men's or women's prisons depending
on whether they have undergone sex-change surgery.

Alexis Giraldo, 30, claims that Folsom State Prison guards ignored
her complaints of abuse and returned her to the same cell until a
subsequent assault got her placed in protective custody and
eventually moved to another facility.

Giraldo, who was born a man but lives as a woman and takes hormones
to feminize her appearance, is suing the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation for emotional distress and violating
her constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

"Prisons are violent places, and male prisons are especially violent
places," said Greg Walston, a San Francisco lawyer who took on
Giraldo's case pro bono. "You take that boiling cauldron and you put
one woman in there – which is exactly what happened here – and it's
like throwing a fresh piece of meat into a lion's cage."

The San Francisco jury hearing the case has been asked to award
Giraldo unspecified damages. Superior Court Judge Ellen Chaitin has
been asked to order prison officials to come up with a new system for
housing transgender inmates.

The California Attorney General's office, which is representing the
corrections department and Folsom staff members also named as
defendants in the lawsuit, said Friday that it would not comment on
the case.

Briefs filed by the state argue that Giraldo initially was in a
consensual sexual relationship with her cell mate in violation of
prison policy, did not report specific rape claims, and refused
offers to be moved to a different cell. Once she made it clear she
was being forced to service her cell mate against her will and
strangulation marks were found on her neck, she was removed to
protective custody, the state maintains.

"Plaintiff alleges that he informed prison staff on a number of
occasions about these events. However, the documentation maintained
by prison personnel – including some of the defendants in this case –
does not bear out these assertions," the state's brief states.

Several counties in California, including San Francisco, have created
separate units specifically for transgender prisoners. But like other
states and the federal Bureau of Prisons, California assigns inmates
to prisons based on their genitalia rather than physical appearance.

Biological men who dress and act like women but have not had sex
reassignment surgery can be assigned to a psychiatric prison like the
one to which Giraldo eventually transferred or the general population
of a regular men's prison.

Teda Boyll, a retired guard and supervisor in California, testified
for Giraldo as an expert witness on Friday, saying that in her
opinion Folsom officials failed to adequately investigate Giraldo's
concerns and assure her safety.

"There are some warning signs," Boyll said. "When an inmate says, 'I
am getting pressured for sex,' it means it is already happened or it
is imminent he will have to provide nonconsensual sex to another
inmate."

Giraldo was sent to Folsom for shoplifitng and a parole violation in
January 2006 and spent three months there before she was transferred
to the medical prison. She was paroled earlier this month and is
scheduled to testify on Friday afternoon.

Her former cell mate, who is serving a sentence for armed robbery, is
also scheduled to testify in the case.

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