In a decision in Maryland Administrative LAw Judge Denise Shaffer has ruled that officials at Patuxent Institution in Jessup Maryland have failed to comply with the national standards for protection of sexual abuse as set forth in the Prisoner Rape Elimination Act.

Sandy Brown, a 40-year-old transgender woman, was serving a five-year sentence for assault in 2014 when she was placed in 24-hour solitary confinement for 66 days at Patuxent after a routine mental health screening. While so housed, Brown says that guards routinely watched her shower and encouraged her to commit suicide.

They didn't see me for the human being I am.

They treated me like a circus act. I understand how animals at the zoo feel now. They gawked, pointed, made fun of me and tried to break my spirit.

These were people I’d never met, people I’d never done anything to.

--Brown

PREA requires prisons to have clear policies and mandatory training for prison personnel concerning the treatment of transgender inmates.

Shaffer found that guards subjected Brown to sexual abuse through voyeurism, adding federal guidelines were not followed in her housing and she was denied access to recreational activities.

Patuxent is meant to be a temporary holding facility to allow for mental health evaluations of inmates. Ordinarily these evaluations take 30 days at most. Ms. Brown’s went much more quickly, but she remained there actually until she filed this complaint.

--Jer Welter, attorney for the complainant

During her time at Patuxent:

• When she was strip-searched upon arrival, a female officer searched the upper part of her body, then a male officer searched the lower part of her body.
• She was held in administrative segregation solely because she is transgender.
• Over the two months she spent confined as such, she was only allowed recreation once
• Patuxent employees repeatedly taunted and harassed her
• Sergeant Dawn Halsey, in particular, referred to her as an “it,” told her that she was not a real woman, and that she should kill herself.
• Correctional officers would stare in her cell to gawk and giggle at her, threaten her, and call her names, leaving her in tears
• On at least one occasion, officers pulled back a curtain to stare at her while she showered

The Judge ruled that the prison should establish new transgender inmate policies for, among other items, strip searches, housing, and guard interactions. Shaffer also ordered the prison to pay Brown $5000 in restitution for denying Brown recreational privileges...which is less than the $75000 in damages that Brown sought over suffering PTSD.

The complaint was filed in April and Judge Shaffer's ruling came down in May. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services formally required its prisons to have new transgender policies and training earlier this month.

Brown's attorney, Rebecca Earlbeck, of FreeState Legal Project, said the case was the first in the country in which a transgender person successfully won a legal battle against prison officials for Prison Rape Elimination Act violations.

We believe this case creates a framework for enforcing the national standards that transgender people who are incarcerated in other states and their advocates can follow to help to ensure that others do not have to endure the pain and trauma Ms. Brown experienced.

--Earlbeck

PREA mandates a policy of zero-tolerance of abuse of inmates. Patuxent had no such policies on the books regarding the sexual abuse or harassment of transgender inmates, nor did any of its employees receive any kind of training with regard to PREA and its impact on transgender inmates. Thanks to the opinion by Administrative Law Judge Denise Oakes Shaffer, that will now change.

--Welter

PREA, promolgated by the Department of Justice in 2012, requires:

• Facilities shall not conduct cross-gender strip searches or cross-gender visual body cavity searches.
• Facilities shall not search or physically examine a transgender or intersex inmate for the sole purpose of determining the inmate’s genital status.
• A transgender or intersex inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety shall be given serious consideration.
• "Inmates at high risk for sexual victimization shall not be placed in involuntary segregated housing” unless no other accommodation can be made. In such cases, “an assignment shall not ordinarily exceed a period of 30 days.”
• Inmates place in segregated housing must have access to the same programs, privileges, education, and work opportunities “to the extent possible.”
• “The agency shall train all employees who may have contact with inmates on: How to communicate effectively and professionally with inmates, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming inmates.”
• “An agency shall have a written policy mandating zero tolerance toward all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment and outlining the agency’s approach to preventing, detecting, and responding to such conduct.”

What our client went through is really degrading conduct that really shakes the conscience. The unfortunate thing is that I don’t think her experience is exceptional for transgender inmates.

--Welter

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 40 percent of transgender people in U.S. prisons from 2011 to 2012 reported experiencing sexual assault or abuse by either another prisoner or staff.

To the other transgender and intersex women behind bars, don’t give up. There is hope out there for us.

--Sandy Brown