Stanley-Eric-Captive-Genders-Trans-Embodiment-and-Prison-Industrial-Complex

No One Enters Like Themsomebody designated to write people in there. We advocate for them, weget their stories out, and basically that’s what we do. We rally up!bn: In TGIJP, what decisions have you made with your work that arebased upon your experiences with prisons?KL: Everything that I do with TGIJP is a reflection of the treatment oftransgenders that are incarcerated in county jails and in prisons, specificallytransgenders of color. In 1999, toward the end of ’99, I was incarcerated,I went to jail. I took a case for my man, and I figured I wouldbeat it because I wasn’t on any paperwork for the case. I was fighting forseven months; during that time a deputy sheriff raped me for a coupleof months until I couldn’t deal with it any longer and I exposed it. I wastreated very, very badly by the female deputies. When they would cometo give us our lunch they would look at me and just hold my bag lunchand just stare, and I’m like, “Can I have my lunch?” and they would look,and one would even go so far as to say, “You’re a man, he [referring to thedeputy sheriff] would never touch you.” And I was like, “Girl, give memy bag!” So they ended up having to move me from the new jail to theold jail for my protection. They stuck me in the hole…way in the hole, becausesome of the COs (the deputy sheriffs) were gunning for me. BecauseI was being harassed a lot.bn: When you were in, you talked about a couple of different things:you talked about the sexual violence that you experienced, and you alsowere serving time for your man. Can you expand on what the chargeswere initially?KL: It was for burglary, I took a burglary charge for him. He was seen,and we both had on all black, and when the police came, I told them itwasn’t him it was me. And he said “Well, dude pointed him out,” and wewere both wearing all black and our hair was in a ponytail, so I said it wasme. And that’s how I ended up going to prison. I fought for seven months,and ended up going to prison for three years. I sued Sheriff Hennessey—and I settled out of court with him.bn: For the rape charges?KL: Yeah, I sued Sheriff Hennessey and I also sued Deputy Anthony221