Trump administration treading carefully in transgender prison housing cases
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Officials in the Trump administration appear to be proceeding cautiously as defendants in a pair of transgender prison housing cases, allegedly against the wishes of incarcerated women who want to see a more proactive approach, despite President Donald Trump’s clear imperative on the long-litigated issue of sex-separated prisons.
In one of the cases, the Justice Department is nearing a settlement with two female inmates seeking separation from biological males who identify as women housed alongside them at a Texas special needs women’s prison.
Last week in Fleming vs. Warden T. Rule, the DOJ agreed to a permanent injunction forbidding the warden of Federal Medical Center-Carswell, a specialized prison in Fort Worth for women primarily with medical and mental health needs, from placing transgender prisoners in the same unit as the plaintiffs.
The ruling is considered the first of its kind that would order federal officials to move biological males who identify as women permanently away from the female prison population.
However, the plaintiffs told the Washington Examiner that negotiations are currently held up over the DOJ’s willingness, or what they say is its apparent reluctance, to award damages to the injured women.
The standoff has left some women’s rights advocates puzzled by what they see as an about-face. Under former President Joe Biden, prison assignments adhered to self-asserted gender identity.
Rhonda Fleming (Courtesy of Jeanette Driever, a friend of Fleming and former FMC Carswell inmate)
“I am very surprised that the government does not want to compensate me, who was true to the cause for over a decade,” lead plaintiff Rhonda Fleming, a longtime litigant fighting the infiltration of biological males in women’s prisons, told the Washington Examiner. “Basically, the government wants to admit women were harmed, but give nothing in compensation and/or protection.”
Fleming, 60, suspects that the federal government does not want to grant them what they are owed in damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, as doing so might mean that authorities would be compelled to recompense thousands of women who were wrongly imprisoned with male inmates over the past decade.
“The government is afraid that by compensating us, because so many women were harmed, it will cause the government to compensate 10,000 or more women,” Fleming said.
Elspeth Cypher, a retired Massachusetts Supreme Court justice serving as president of the Women’s Liberation …
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Officials in the Trump administration appear to be proceeding cautiously as defendants in a pair of transgender prison housing cases, allegedly against the wishes of incarcerated women who want to see a more proactive approach, despite President Donald Trump’s clear imperative on the long-litigated issue of sex-separated prisons.
In one of the cases, the Justice Department is nearing a settlement with two female inmates seeking separation from biological males who identify as women housed alongside them at a Texas special needs women’s prison.
Last week in Fleming vs. Warden T. Rule, the DOJ agreed to a permanent injunction forbidding the warden of Federal Medical Center-Carswell, a specialized prison in Fort Worth for women primarily with medical and mental health needs, from placing transgender prisoners in the same unit as the plaintiffs.
The ruling is considered the first of its kind that would order federal officials to move biological males who identify as women permanently away from the female prison population.
However, the plaintiffs told the Washington Examiner that negotiations are currently held up over the DOJ’s willingness, or what they say is its apparent reluctance, to award damages to the injured women.
The standoff has left some women’s rights advocates puzzled by what they see as an about-face. Under former President Joe Biden, prison assignments adhered to self-asserted gender identity.
Rhonda Fleming (Courtesy of Jeanette Driever, a friend of Fleming and former FMC Carswell inmate)
“I am very surprised that the government does not want to compensate me, who was true to the cause for over a decade,” lead plaintiff Rhonda Fleming, a longtime litigant fighting the infiltration of biological males in women’s prisons, told the Washington Examiner. “Basically, the government wants to admit women were harmed, but give nothing in compensation and/or protection.”
Fleming, 60, suspects that the federal government does not want to grant them what they are owed in damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, as doing so might mean that authorities would be compelled to recompense thousands of women who were wrongly imprisoned with male inmates over the past decade.
“The government is afraid that by compensating us, because so many women were harmed, it will cause the government to compensate 10,000 or more women,” Fleming said.
Elspeth Cypher, a retired Massachusetts Supreme Court justice serving as president of the Women’s Liberation …
Trump administration treading carefully in transgender prison housing cases
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Officials in the Trump administration appear to be proceeding cautiously as defendants in a pair of transgender prison housing cases, allegedly against the wishes of incarcerated women who want to see a more proactive approach, despite President Donald Trump’s clear imperative on the long-litigated issue of sex-separated prisons.
In one of the cases, the Justice Department is nearing a settlement with two female inmates seeking separation from biological males who identify as women housed alongside them at a Texas special needs women’s prison.
Last week in Fleming vs. Warden T. Rule, the DOJ agreed to a permanent injunction forbidding the warden of Federal Medical Center-Carswell, a specialized prison in Fort Worth for women primarily with medical and mental health needs, from placing transgender prisoners in the same unit as the plaintiffs.
The ruling is considered the first of its kind that would order federal officials to move biological males who identify as women permanently away from the female prison population.
However, the plaintiffs told the Washington Examiner that negotiations are currently held up over the DOJ’s willingness, or what they say is its apparent reluctance, to award damages to the injured women.
The standoff has left some women’s rights advocates puzzled by what they see as an about-face. Under former President Joe Biden, prison assignments adhered to self-asserted gender identity.
Rhonda Fleming (Courtesy of Jeanette Driever, a friend of Fleming and former FMC Carswell inmate)
“I am very surprised that the government does not want to compensate me, who was true to the cause for over a decade,” lead plaintiff Rhonda Fleming, a longtime litigant fighting the infiltration of biological males in women’s prisons, told the Washington Examiner. “Basically, the government wants to admit women were harmed, but give nothing in compensation and/or protection.”
Fleming, 60, suspects that the federal government does not want to grant them what they are owed in damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, as doing so might mean that authorities would be compelled to recompense thousands of women who were wrongly imprisoned with male inmates over the past decade.
“The government is afraid that by compensating us, because so many women were harmed, it will cause the government to compensate 10,000 or more women,” Fleming said.
Elspeth Cypher, a retired Massachusetts Supreme Court justice serving as president of the Women’s Liberation …
