Civil-Liberties Nonprofit Threatens Lawsuit against Washington Prisons for Housing Males with Women

A civil liberties nonprofit on Monday delivered a letter to the Washington Department of Corrections threatening a lawsuit if it continues housing transgender-identifying male felons with female inmates.

Addressed to WA DOC secretary Cheryl Strange, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism demanded the prison system restore its women’s facilities to their former female-only status, outlining concerns with the female inmates’ safety and discriminatory treatment under the current “gender-inclusive” housing policy.

“Our goal is simple: to secure equitable protections for female prisoners by ensuring the availability of a female-only DOC facility,” the organization said in a warning letter obtained by National Review. “To achieve this, we will execute a multi-pronged advocacy plan and, if necessary, file a lawsuit.”

FAIR mentioned that rape, sexual assault, physical assault, and emotional harm have been perpetrated against female inmates forced to cohabitate with male prisoners. Since 2021, National Review has documented multiple cases of trans-identifying male criminals engaging in prohibited or abusive sexual encounters with female inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, colloquially called “Purdy.”

A transgender-identifying male felon with a violent criminal past was recently moved out of Purdy and placed in a men’s facility after National Review reported that he had sexual intercourse with a female inmate.

Bryan Kim was found guilty in 2008 of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the stabbing of his father, Richard Kim, and the bludgeoning and strangulation of his mother, Terri Kim, the Spokesman-Review reported. Kim killed his parents at their Mount Spokane home on December 5, 2006, as they returned from work. After attempting to clean up the murder scene and hide his parents’ bodies in an outbuilding, Kim went shopping the next day, using his father’s debit card to withdraw $1,000 from his parents’ account. For his crimes, Kim was sentenced to life in prison.

“The reason for Kim’s transfer was due to ongoing safety concerns,” the DOC told National Review.

Before launching litigation, FAIR said it would first encourage female inmates to report their grievances to Strange, monitoring instances of retaliation against those who may complain. FAIR also committed to send a letter of complaint to the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, which has the statutory authority to investigate the DOC based on these allegations and could choose to bring suit against the DOC for civil rights violations.

Regardless of potential DOJ action, if the internal grievance procedures “do not provide timely and adequate remedies to ensure the equal protection of female prisoners,” FAIR will sue.

Male convicts can be admitted into Purdy if they complete a mental-health assessment, health-care assessment, and facility evaluation, and if several multidisciplinary teams approve their “gender-inclusive” housing request. The WA DOC maintains that trans-identifying male applicants must make a compelling case justifying their request, but the burden of proof is quite low in practice, former Purdy guard Scott Fleming previously told National Review. Men requesting transfers to Purdy aren’t required to have undergone reassignment surgery or a hormone regimen, or be in the process of transitioning, he said. The only prerequisite is that the men claim to be female.

“Due to biological and sociological differences, females are vulnerable to physical and emotional harm in ways males are not,” the FAIR letter said. “For example, females are generally smaller and have less upper and lower body strength than males. Additionally, only females can become pregnant. Incarcerated females are also at least six times more likely than males to have been sexually abused by males before entering the prison
system.”

At least eleven transgender-identifying male felons are currently housed at Purdy, National Review recently reported. Many of them committed violent and/or sexual crimes against women and children.

“When a male prisoner is housed in a female-only facility, it ceases to be female-only, depriving female prisoners of equal protection under the Constitution and constituting cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment,” the FAIR letter said. “The reports we have received, along with our independent investigation, demonstrate a pattern of discrimination against female inmates due to DOC policies and practices. The remedy is simple: the DOC must maintain a facility exclusively for female prisoners.”