News Item

Suits Filed Against Jailers in Jailhouse Rapes of Transgenders

5/28/04

When Kelly McAllister was arrested and convicted of assaulting a neighbor during an argument, she knew she would be spending some time in jail. What she didn't know was that she would be subject to humiliation, rape, and concern for her physical safety perpetrated and facilitated by her jailers.

At the beginning of April, attorney Dean Johansson filed four separate civil suits against the Sacramento County Sheriff's Dept. and County Sheriff Lou Blanas. The suits allege the four transgendered plaintiffs, McAllister, Jackie Tates, Raymond Sanders and America Tejada, were used as sex partners for prisoners in the jail in exchange for good behavior.

According to the plaintiff's attorney, Dean Johansson, "This is just the tip of the iceberg".

The charges allege Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies were complicit in allowing access for these inmates to rape the transgendered prisoners, with the knowledge that the men intended to brutalize and rape them.

In addition, these pre-operative male-to-female transsexual women were subject to frequent verbal and psychological assaults from guard and inmates, denial or improper administration of prescribed hormone medications, as well as being denied the issuance of bras and made to walk bare-chested in front of other inmates and guards at the Sacramento Main Jail.


While assigned to total separation from other inmates because of their transgender statuses, guards in charge routinely ignored the classification as well as the mandated regulations that forbid housing such prisoners with the general population of male inmates.

The case of Jackie Tates is particularly disturbing and striking. While in custody of the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, Ms. Tates was raped and brutalized, allegedly when guards intentionally unlocked her cell and allowed male inmates to rush in and savagely attack her. The very next day, guards again unlocked her cell and allowed her to be sexually assaulted by another male inmate.


After initiating a suit against the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, Tates entered a plea agreement on her case, with the understanding that she was to be turned over to the California Department of Corrections and transported to Atascadero State Hospital to serve out her sentence.

Instead, Tates was taken to Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center (RCCC), another all-male Sheriff's Department holding facility used to house inmates for disciplinary purposes. Ms. Tates contends that this was done in retaliation for going public with her story and filing her suit. While at RCCC, Tates was again sexually assaulted by a male inmate, and was punished for fighting back by being placed in disciplinary restriction, commonly known as "The Hole", for five days. Meanwhile, the inmate who assaulted her received no punishment.

"The allowed access to sexual assault, whether for punitive reasons or due to lax disregard, is egregious and inhumane punishment," stated Vanessa Edwards Foster, chair of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC).

"Should one of these sexual assailants have AIDS," Foster continued, "it essentially sentences the victims to a long, slow and excruciating death sentence. This is intolerable behavior."

This same jail has been scrutinized before, prompting a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Owen Panner who admonished the County Sheriff's Dept. not to mistreat or to deny transgenders the benefits available to other inmates. The case that prompted the decision made no mention or allegations of sexual assault.

"I think there are going to be many more cases," Dean Johansson, attorney for the four plaintiffs told the Sacramento News and Review. "I'm amazed at how much anti-transgender behavior and outright hate I'm coming across."

NTAC opposes this kind of deplorable mistreatment transgender-identified inmates by the Sacramento Sheriff's Department and stands squarely in support of these women's fair treatment and of the advocates in their behalf.