TPI is posting advocacy letters we have written to provide examples of violence against persons in prison, primarily against trans and queer persons in Texas prisons. Personal identifying information has been removed for all incarcerated persons, and named staff or other persons causing harm is removed on a case by case basis.
Content warning: Some of these letters describe threats and incidents of violence that may be disturbing. We will note whether each letter is considered a low, moderate, or high risk for being disturbing. We consider this letter to be moderate risk.
The trans woman in this complaint was sexually assaulted by someone she had previously been in a relationship with, and was able to stop the assault and prevent further abuse by calling out, causing the assailant to leave the scene.
When she tried to report the assault, she was initially refused in violation of Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requirements to respond to all reports of sexual violence. Later she did report, and unit safe prisons staff, which are responsible for PREA implementation at the unit, convinced the subject to retract her statement by stating she could be subject to retaliation by other members of the gang to which the accused belongs. It should be noted that it is unit safe prisons staff responsibility to monitor for retaliation and keep persons reporting sexual violence safe. Also, retraction of a claim of sexual violence is manipulation of data that is a violation of PREA standards to document all reports of sexual violence.
The subject was promised a transfer if retracting her allegation of sexual violence. However, the subject was not transferred, was subject to retaliation by persons affiliated with her assailant, and was initially refused further opportunity to report the sexual abuse, although with persistence she was able to report.
When the sexual assault was eventually reported and “investigated,” TDCJ’s PREA ombudsman stated that the subject “disclosed the [previous] relationship with the alleged assailant was consensual and there was no sexual abuse,” which appallingly seems to show the TDCJ PREA managers appear to be claiming sexual violence cannot happen between intimate partners or prior intimate partners. Eventually, however, additional violence by the person abusing the trans woman resulted in requiring both be housed separately to avoid further harm.
In the 2021 Texas legislative session, HB 1598 and SB 1980 proposed creating a new independent ombudsman office separate from TDCJ as an oversight agency. TDCJ seems to have responded by creating their own “independent” ombudsman office, which we are directly addressing in this letter, probably to make the argument that an actual independent agency is not needed because they already have a supposedly independent oversight group. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of TPI’s responses from the “independent” ombudsman simply repeat the findings (and excuses) of staff at the units where the incidents occurred.