IHT.com – The Associated Press
San Francisco: A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by a male cell mate went to court this week to challenge a state policy that assigns inmates like her to women’s prisons only if they have had gender-changing surgery.
Several counties in California, including San Francisco, have created separate units specifically for transgender prisoners. But like other U.S. states and the federal Bureau of Prisons, California assigns inmates to prisons based on their genitalia rather than their outward physical appearance.
Alexis Giraldo, 30, claims that Folsom State Prison guards ignored her complaints of abuse and returned her to the same cell in a men’s prison ward until a subsequent assault got her placed in protective custody and eventually moved to another facility.
Giraldo, who was born a man but lives as a woman and takes hormones to feminize her appearance, is suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for emotional distress and violating her constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.