Dori: Can Dept. of Corrections avoid reporting transgender-related crimes in women’s prisons?

The case involving the Washington State Department of Corrections, transgender inmates, and refusing to share public records is heating up.

A year ago, when several inside sources reached out to The Dori Monson Show regarding past and allegedly recent crimes involving several transgender women housed in the Washington State Corrections Center for Women, state corrections officials refused to talk.

Dori sought details about at least two cases shared by whistleblowers, including one transgender inmate who was charged and convicted for sexually mutilating and killing three women in the Spokane area before being sentenced to the state’s Gig Harbor facility for women, and another transgender woman who was originally convicted of having sex with a 12-year-old girl. While behind bars in the Gig Harbor facility, this inmate groomed and raped a developmentally disabled female inmate, according to an anonymous source.

DOC employee reports men are claiming to be women to transfer prisons

At first, the DOC ignored requests for information about these cases. DOC officials also refused to talk about the number of biological males or transgender women being housed in state women’s facilities. Several sources say there are at least six biological males housed in state women’s facilities.

Without disclosing any details of these and other cases, the state DOC is now working with legislators to pass House Bill 1956. If approved by the state Senate, the bill would prevent the state DOC from having to reveal any information about an inmate’s “transgender, intersex, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming status, sexual orientation, genital anatomy, or gender-affirming care or accommodations other than that person’s preferred name and pronouns.”

The co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland), told Dori on Monday that he and other legislators wrote the bill after listening to DOC officials, who explained that transgender inmates are vulnerable to crimes against them in prison. Protecting an inmate’s gender identify protects their safety behind bars, Goodman said.

But what about protecting the female inmates? Dori wanted to know.

Rep. Goodman told Dori he was not aware of the details involving transgender-related crimes behind bars. DOC officials never shared any of the details covered in Dori’s story, he added.

But leading women’s rights groups know about these cases. The Women’s Liberation Front is actively lobbying against this bill and others.

Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced the Preventing Violence Against Female Inmates Act in Washington, D.C. The act would prohibit the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from housing inmates with those of the opposite sex.

Cotton’s proposal is pushback against President Joe Biden’s draft executive order that would allow the Bureau of Prisons to assign inmates to facilities according to their gender – not biological – identity.

“If a male convict says he feels like a woman, Biden will force women to bunk next to him. No genital amputation or plastic surgery is necessary; a man with functioning male organs can still be considered a woman,” states to a January report appearing on the Ethics & Public Policy Center website.

Listen to Dori’s interview with Rep. Roger Goodman:

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