One Of Our Worst Fears

Is being put into a male prison and being rapped; well it happened down in New Orleans.

Transgender woman raped inside Orleans Parish jail with guard absent for over an hour, lawsuit says
The New Orleans Advocate
By Jim Mustian
September 20, 2016

A transgender woman booked on municipal warrants last year was assaulted and raped at the city's new jail by a male cellmate who was awaiting trial on armed robbery charges, according to a lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, raises questions about the treatment of transgender inmates at the Orleans Justice Center, an understaffed lockup plagued by violence since shortly after it opened a year ago.

The U.S. Department of Justice issued national guidelines months ago calling for inmates' gender identity to be considered in their housing assignments, but that approach has not been implemented at the local jail. Federal and local officials are now discussing a new housing policy for transgender inmates in New Orleans.

He got 12 years but the trans woman will never get over being sexually assaulted.

The 20-year-old victim, described in the lawsuit as a "male to female transgendered individual" from St. Bernard Parish, had been booked three weeks before the attack for failing to appear in New Orleans Municipal Court on charges of disturbing the peace and theft of goods under $500.

She was in there for minor offenses and she didn’t deserve a sentence of rape.

The prison system in Louisiana is not known for its country club atmosphere,

"The lack of management at (the Sheriff's Office) and lack of adherence to classification systems has a disproportionate impact on women and especially transgendered women inside (the jail), who find it difficult to find safety and advocacy outside the jail and even more difficult to find it inside the jail," said Nia Weeks, of Women with a Vision, a member of the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition. "The sheriff’s responsibility has been to ensure the safety and well-being of those that are arrested and put in his care, and he failed to do so once again."

The lawsuit draws upon the well-documented history of violence at the New Orleans jail, which has been the subject of a federal consent decree for three years.

Conditions at the lockup became so dire earlier this year that hundreds of inmates were sent to other jails around the state, and a federal judge recently approved the appointment of an outside administrator to take over day-to-day operations at the facility.

Hopefully better conditions for all inmates will be the outcome of this lawsuit.