SerpApi.Org
The Justice Department intends to move all of the biological male inmates currently housed at women’s prisons across the country into a specialized unit, resolving the men’s lawsuit claiming that they would be at a heightened risk of rape while imprisoned among other men.
Government attorneys on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Prisons have filed a notice of anticipated transfer informing the court in Jane Doe v. Blanche that officials intend to transfer the transgender litigants, all biological men who identify as women, to “a secure, segregated” wing within Federal Medical Center-Carswell, a Texas women’s prison.
By placing the Jane Doe complainants in a specially designed unit at FMC Carswell away from the female prison population, the DOJ’s creative proposal combines facets of two cases concerning the housing of transgender prisoners under the Trump administration. Female inmates from a separate suit, Fleming v. Warden T. Rule, previously secured a first-of-its-kind protective order that created the “miniature men’s prison” inside FMC Carswell, as the DOJ had described the separation arrangement.
In Fleming, U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, approved the unit’s establishment that completely cordons off the male inmates at FMC Carswell and simultaneously remedies the men’s fear of sexual violence claims.
In Blanche, the biological males obtained a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks their reassignments to men’s facilities on grounds that “they are likely to suffer imminent and irreparable harm absent injunctive relief.” The men’s main argument centers on them facing the threat of rape, as “transgender women,” if they were relocated.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, another Reagan appointee, specified in his decision at the time that the injunction “merely enjoins” the government from transferring the 14 men to male-designated penitentiaries. “It does not, at this juncture, require that Plaintiffs be housed alongside cisgender female inmates or share common spaces,” Lamberth stated.
In the advance notice announcing the government’s transfer plans, the DOJ cited Lamberth’s clarification that the June 7 court order does not instruct the department to place the male petitioners in living quarters with female inmates. Four of the Jane Doe plaintiffs, who are housed at FMC Carswell, were already moved to the special cellblock in compliance with the Fleming order, which also mandates separate showering schedules and other measures “as necessary” to prevent any overlap between biologically male and female inmates during daily prison life.
The male litigants have since filed an emergency motion to enforce Lamberth’s preliminary injunction irrespective of the Fleming order, arguing that his “clear and unambiguous” ruling requires the BOP to “maintain and continue” each plaintiff’s “housing status in women’s facilities.”
Represented pro bono by the National Center for LGBTQ Rights and the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the plaintiffs accused the government of acting in contravention of Lamberth’s “binding” restraint and running with a far-reaching interpretation of Fitzwater’s ruling.
The men claimed that the “quasi-solitary unit [at FMC Carswell] impedes access to medical and legal visits and strips them of virtually all programming, education, recreation, and meaningful social contact, far exceeding any measure necessary to comply with the Fleming order.”
In support of the motion, legal counsel attached declarations from the four co-plaintiffs confined to the special housing unit, alleging that they are “suffering severe and escalating harm, including resurgent gender dysphoria, loss of clinical progress achieved over years in general population, deteriorating mental health, and, for at least one Plaintiff, the resurgence of suicidal ideation.”
Urging immediate intervention by the court, the male plaintiffs asked that Lamberth prevent the remaining biological men’s imminent transfers to FMC Carswell, order the return of the four male inmates to the general population at other women’s prisons, or at least restore their out-of-unit movement.
Rhonda Fleming, lead plaintiff in the Texas case, told the Washington Examiner that the men should feel grateful that BOP has decided to accommodate them by creating an entirely new area that keeps the male inmates safe from sexual assault, which was the crux of their original complaint.
“If they all claim to be women, what is the big deal with them being in one area?” Fleming questioned. “These men want access to women, but not each other.”
Fleming noted that other biological women are segregated at FMC Carswell without claiming mental health problems brought on by isolation. “There is no equal protection claim, if we wanted to play their game that they are real women,” she said. “Real women have to follow FBOP policies, too.”
Lamberth ordered on Monday that both parties present oral arguments on the matter at a July 29 hearing. The government has until Friday to submit a written brief opposing the plaintiffs’ enforcement motion, and the plaintiffs’ reply is due two days before oral arguments.
