question about jail!!

[oralmagic]

Please accept my apology, I was not glorifling going to prison or jail to meet T-girls. I was only responding to the question of T-girls in lock-up. I would take any experience for meeting these young ladies, I was relaying my story.

[happyjack]

First,Rikers or any city jail is up to one year,anything over that is state time,but sometimes due to overcrowing they will keep you in the city until theres room upstate.most of the girls arent dueing serious time so they're in the city jails..

[NYCe]

Discrimination claimed
Transgender speaks out against treatment in local jail
By Lolita Harper
Staff Writer

Monday, July 04, 2005 - RANCHO CUCAMONGA - Jackie Tates speaks softly like a lady and laughs demurely, although she finds little humorous about her current situation at West Valley Detention Center.

Tates lives her life in the outside world as a woman, although she was born a man. She wears her hair long and curly, with bangs framing her square face.

She has womanly breasts, wears women's clothing and makeup.

The 37-year-old is one of the Alternate Lifestyle Housing Inmates at West Valley Detention Center. Some in the unit consider her their advocate.

They claim sheriff's deputies and county jail service workers discriminate against them, treat them with disrespect and constantly "hurt their feelings. "

Sheriff's officials returned a phone call for comment, but were not available when a reporter called them back. But copies of written responses to formal grievances were obtained by The Sun. In them, officials deny any maltreatment and remind the inmates they are just that inmates. They are not on vacation; they are not a privileged class.

The conflicts at West Valley highlight a growing correctional challenge. How do jails deal with transgenders? Do they house them with men? With women?

Leo Carrol, a correctional expert and professor at the University of Rhode Island, said the issue has not been given much scrutiny on a national scale. But officials will have to deal with it at some point.

"Transgenders are more common, society is more open and acceptable and the correctional system will have to accommodate itself, " Carrol said. "Prisons are at least partly a reflection of society around them. "

Transgenders, whether male-to-female or female-to-male, are a growing class and many work among the masses, as successful lawyers, account managers, customer service representatives, etc. without a second glance from their peers.

But others are shunned by society and turn to drugs or prostitution, which often lead to incarceration, experts said.

Tates was involved with both drugs and prostitution before her stints in jails up and down California. The Chicago native said she came west with a boyfriend at the age of 18 and worked as an escort in San Francisco.

She was in and out of custody, ultimately landing in Sacramento County Jail, where in 2003 she filed a lawsuit against the county for egregious abuses while at the facility, including rape and discrimination.

Shortly after, Tates said she drank some potent jail-house brew and wrote a threatening letter to Gov. Gray Davis. She was sentenced to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, where in November she was arrested on suspicion of bringing narcotics into a prison facility after guards found drugs on one of her visitors.

She was transferred to West Valley where she remains during the judicial process for those charges.

She sees the world through dark brown, almond-shaped eyes. Just below the corner of her right eye she has either a scar or a beauty mark - it's hard to tell through the thick glass in the jail's visiting room.

But it is how fellow inmates and deputies see her that has driven her to file numerous grievances about West Valley Detention Center and attempt suicide. Tates is housed in the "Alternative Lifestyle " area of the jail with other gay or transsexual men, but that wasn't always the case.

She was moved from alternative lifestyle housing because of disciplinary issues. After three write-ups, an inmate is labeled a "problem inmate " and is transferred to administrative segregation, more commonly referred to as "ad-seg. "

She was put in disciplinary housing in February, March and part of April. Those in ad-seg come from all areas of the jail. There is no alternative-lifestyle section in ad-seg and she was housed with members of the general population men, who look like men and act like men.

Men who have been convicted or accused of violent felonies. Men who spend all their free time weight lifting. Gay men who Tates says were jealous of the attention she received from other men.

"I ain't trying to find no man in jail, " Tates said.

They teased her, called her "he-she, " "it, " "freak " the list goes on. They stared at her naked body in the shower, asked how she got so shapely, where her womanly breasts came from.

"I am sorry if you are subjected to ridicule, but the Sheriff's Department cannot prevent these comments, " a deputy identified only as J. Nuss wrote in response to one of Tate's many complaints. "Sheriff's personnel treat you fairly and professionally. I will monitor the review you have upcoming and hope the review will answer some of your concerns. "

On March 31, Tates filed a grievance regarding a comment made by a "civilian " touring the facility who asked why a woman was being housed with men. Tates said she heard the deputy describe her as a "he-she, " to which the guest laughed.

"I felt very humiliated and as if I was part of a circus act, " Tates wrote in the grievance. "`He-she' is a very highly offensive term to transsexuals. "

A supervisor, identified in the document only as Sgt. Stewart, responded and said the deputy's comment was overheard by Tates, not directed at her.

"You are in a correctional environment and there may be sensitivities bruised in the normal course of events, " Stewart wrote in a response dated April 4. "It is not intended, and in this case, it was a comment not planned for you to hear. "

She is not used to the ridicule because on the outside, people assume she is a woman. The name-calling is demeaning. Her time in West Valley has caused her many sleepless nights.

"I know I am in jail, and I accept that, but they are constantly hurting my feelings, " Tates said.

Raised lines of shiny new skin stripe her left arm from wrist to mid-forearm, each about an eighth of an inch wide and about 4 inches long.

The grotesque scars are what remain of deep gashes made with a razor blade, or other sharp objects, by a woman trapped in a man's body, desperate to end the humiliation.

Tates lays her right hand over the healed wounds to hide them.

"I am so ashamed of these, " she said softly, her gaze turned downward.

The abuse goes beyond hurt feelings, Tates said.

On Feb. 2, Tates said she was brutally attacked by inmate Jason Harris, who hid in the showers while Tates was released for her exercise time. At the time, Harris and Tates were in disciplinary housing, where inmates are isolated from each other.

Harris, who is in custody on suspicion of murder, later apologized to Tates and claimed he was ordered by a deputy to "hurt " her. She believed him, saying she fears the guards more than the inmates.

Chris Daley, the director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, said it is not uncommon for many male-to-female transgender women to believe in such a conspiracy. The center has heard numerous stories from other incarcerated women who believe the same.

"The day-to-day fears of violence is really about staff and not so much the other inmates, or that the guards are in some way at play in abuses by other inmates, " Daley said. "Of course, it's only anecdotal. There have been no studies, or anything, this is just what we are hearing. "

Tates filed another grievance, claiming the deputies should have better secured the shower area, thus preventing the attack. Sheriff's officials responded by saying they cannot always control what other inmates do.

Harris and Tates are now "close friends, " Tates said, which has led Harris to experience further abuse from deputies and other inmates.

Harris asked to be transferred to Alternative Lifestyle Housing because there, the harassment will stop.

"He's not gay, " Tates said of Harris, "but once you've got that rumor on you in general population, you might as well be. "

Although Harris may see the housing move as a better alternative, others in that tier believe they are treated worse by jail staffers because of their sexual or gender preferences.

Raul Correa, 26, who was convicted of car-jacking an elderly person, wrote a grievance accusing jail staffers of ignoring his calls for help during an asthma attack because of how he chooses to live his life.

"I feel without a doubt that I was only treated like this due to my being a transsexual, " Correa wrote on June 3.

Christian Romero, sentenced to 120 days for taking a car without permission, filed a complaint alleging his toilet was not fixed in a timely matter because he is gay.

To those and dozens of other similar grievances filed by Tates, sheriff's officials routinely respond that the department does not discriminate based on "sexual lifestyle. "

They see Tate's complaints as excessive and a misuse of the grievance process. Various supervisors who have responded to Tate's written complaints say her accusations are unsubstantiated and not factually supported.

"It is understandable that the officers working in the unit find your accusations problematic. ... Your position is that everyone else is wrong. ... Unsupportive rhetoric is difficult to resolve, " a West Valley supervisor wrote. "I hope you will consider your role in correctional housing and how you can be a part of the solution to your perceived problem. "

Solutions to Tate's problems, and those who are charged with guarding correctional facilities, are complex and elusive.

Experts agree that "proper assignments " or classification of the inmates could help. Jails and prisons, in general, assign inmates based on their genitalia, and not on their "gender-identity, " or the gender they chose to live their life as.

Certainly a post-operative transgender, someone who has already had the surgery to change from male to female, should be housed with women, Carrol said. Pre-operative inmates, like Tates, present a more complex situation.

Daley of the Transgender Law Center said many male-to-female transgenders have been living their lives as women and taking hormones for years. The only manly thing about them is their penis.

"Only a limited number of transgenders have the surgery, " Daley said.

Tates, and those like her, would certainly be targets for attacks and sexual abuse, which are said to occur in jails and prisons regardless of sexual preference, if placed with general population men.

"Her life, if that were the case, would be very difficult, " Carrol said.

Daley and other advocates argue that inmates should be classified by their gender identity, regardless of genitalia, but even that poses a problem, he admits. Female-to-male transgenders are generally not comfortable with being placed in custody with men because of their size and genitalia. Daley said that placement would likely put them in danger.

"I have yet to hear of a really effective solution, " Daley said.

Respect on behalf of the guards and other inmates will also go a long way, Daley said. Deputies and jail staffers should undergo proper training and know that certain terms or comments are unacceptable.

For example, using an improper pronoun or a previous name is considered an attempt to put a transgender "in their place, " and remind them what gender they were born as, Daley said. Such actions suggest that a person is wrong for choosing to identify as the opposite gender.

"It all comes down to respect and safety, " Daley said. "The method ... has to be one that doesn't punish transgender people simply for being transgender. "

Carrol applauded the Sheriff's Department for offering a separate area for those who live alternative lifestyles. Many states, like Rhode Island, do not have such designations. California is more "progressive, " he said.

But it's a double-edged sword.

Inmates in alternative housing complain they are too often put in contact with general population inmates, subjecting them to probable harassment and harm. At the same time, they complain they are unfairly kept from attending church with the general population.

The Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. California that racial segregation of inmates was unconstitutional. Correctional officials separated inmates by race in the first 90 days because of the violent conflicts between prison gangs, many of which are racially divided, Carrol said.

Although the separation was done in the name of safety, it was condemned. Carrol warns the same could happen with the sexual-preference debate, once the issue becomes more prevalent.

"That is the kind of issue that managers of correctional facilities face, " Carrol said. "The issue of transgenders is a more extreme instance of that. "

[tippinnottrippin]

Oh well life a bitch then you die. I won't shed a tear he-she put itself in that spot. "Freaky"