Dori: Male prisoners are identifying as transgender for access to ‘easier’ women’s facility

Last year, The Dori Monson Show broke a story about a transgender inmate, born as a biological male, allegedly raping a developmentally-disabled woman while both were confined behind bars at the Washington State Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) in Gig Harbor.

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

Earlier this month, multiple sources reported about two women allegedly having sex with a biological male – an inmate who transferred to that facility after identifying as transgender – at an all-female prison in New Jersey. Both are pregnant.

Now, Dori and his listeners heard directly from a former state Department of Corrections guard that more than 150 biologically male inmates serving time in other all-male corrections facilities around Washington are lining up to transfer to Gig Harbor’s WCCW because it’s “significantly easier” to serve time with women.

“They are bringing biological males who claim to identify as females and putting them into the women’s prison,” former state DOC officer Scott Fleming confirmed to Dori Thursday. “All that they have to claim is that they identify as a female.”

No requirements for hormone treatment? No confirmation that inmate is in the transitioning process? No proof that gender or sexual reassignment surgery had occurred?

None, Fleming said.

“When I was there . . . all they had to do was claim they identified as females and convince a psychologist to sign off on it,” Fleming confirmed.

What’s behind the interest to transfer, Dori asked.

“There’s less of a threat to you physically (if you’re a biological male in the women’s facility) and the potential for having a sexual relationship or forcing yourself on [women] is pretty high,” Fleming added.

Fleming’s observations are based on his five years of service at Stafford Creek Maximum Security facility for men in Aberdeen and his three years at the women’s prison in Gig Harbor.

This is particularly important in the case of a developmentally-delayed female inmate at WCCS. Several of Fleming’s DOC colleagues confidentially revealed to Dori in early 2021 that she among several females were discovered having sex with a transgender inmate.

“Completely accurate,” Fleming confirmed.

The female inmate – whom Fleming claims has the mental development of a child – was placed in the same WCCW cell with a biological male who now identifies as transgender.

In 2003, the transgender inmate was convicted in Louisiana for having sex with a 12-year-old girl. In early 2021, the same inmate became one of the first three self-identifying transgender inmates to transfer from a male prison to the women’s facility in Gig Harbor, according to Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).

Despite a citation Fleming’s colleague wrote up on the incident involving the transgender inmate and the developmentally-delayed female inmate at WCCW, nothing was ever done, Fleming told Dori.

“They did have sex and that has been erased from the books?” Dori asked.

“Correct,” Fleming responded. “Any documentation was erased. Like it never existed.”

Seventy percent of women in prison “have at some point in their life been victims of sexual assault,” Dori told listeners.

Based on his DOC training, Fleming retorted that the number is likely higher: “85 percent have experienced some sort of trauma at the hands of men.”

If this biological male was among the first self-identifying transgender inmates to transfer to WCCW, how many more want a spot there, too?

“I don’t know,” Fleming said. “I was told by a supervisor at the institution who had access to that information that it is upwards of 150 or more than were trying to come to the women’s prison. They are not good people. They’re very violent. They found that loophole and wanted to get in on it.”

“Here we have women – in the most vulnerable of situations – and the state of Washington is putting many of those women behind bars with a biological male,” Dori told listeners.

Despite efforts by The Dori Monson Show, Bonneville Seattle, and several other media outlets, Dori said, the state of Washington “and Department of Corrections in particular did not want to comply with any of the Freedom of Information Act requests” related to details and numbers involving biological men and transgender inmates transferring to women’s facilities.

“We won’t give up,” Dori told listeners.

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.