Trans Woman Moved Back To Men’s Prison In Unprecedented Act

Washington state’s prison officials forcibly removed a transgender woman from the women’s prison where she had lived for three and a half years and transferred her to a men’s facility last week, marking the first time the agency has removed a transgender person from gender-affirming housing.

Last Friday afternoon, Amber Kim was removed from her cell at the Washington Corrections Center for Women and placed in waist restraints. When her requests to see paperwork authorizing the transfer and to speak to her lawyer were denied, she refused to continue walking, Kim told HuffPost.

Guards slammed her to the ground, she said, tied her ankles and wrists together and threw her in the back of an SUV, and drove her to Monroe Correctional Complex, a men’s prison about 70 miles away. There, she was placed in solitary confinement as punishment for “refusing transfer,” she said.

Kim has been on a hunger strike since last Friday, she said, demanding to be transferred back to WCCW, the women’s prison.

Speaking from solitary confinement in the men’s prison earlier this week, Kim expressed fear and desperation. “I’m just scared it’s gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.”

Kim was previously the subject of a HuffPost story told HuffPost. She privately disclosed she was trans to prison staff in 2013, hoping it would lead to gender-affirming health care and housing. But for years, her requests were repeatedly denied.

The denials didn’t come with an explanation. Eventually, Kim filed a public records request, paying 20 cents per page for documentation of the denial of one of her requests to move to the women’s prison. The paperwork revealed that prison officials deadnamed and misgendered her and leaned on baseless assertions that as a trans woman, she posed an inherent threat to cis women — even though the prison’s own classification system labeled her as a “potential victim” rather than assailant.

In 2020, the DOC released its first trans housing policy, and the following year, it allowed Kim to move to WCCW. Of the approximately 250 openly trans men and women in DOC prisons, 11 are currently in gender-affirming housing, Wright said. Although most transgender people in DOC custody are not in gender-congruent housing, the state has never previously removed a trans person from such a setting.

DOC’s “own policies have come to recognize that trans people exist in prisons and have faced significant danger — and their own decision to transfer Amber to a women’s prison [in 2021] indicates their recognition that she is, in fact, a trans woman who faces danger in men’s prisons,” said Dean Spade, a professor at Seattle University School of Law. “So their current position to transfer her to a men’s prison is out of line with their own policy requirements and the most basic requirements they are under to prevent grievous harm to her.”

“Nothing changed about who she is,” Spade said.

Kim has been in the Intensive Management Unit, or solitary confinement, since she arrived at the men’s prison last Friday. It took a day and a half for prison staff to provide her with gender-appropriate undergarments, and two days until she had phone access. She has spent the past week locked in her cell nearly 24 hours a day. On some days, she has been allowed out briefly to use the phone or go outside. She is allowed to shower three times a week.

Wright said Kim was placed in segregation after she “refused to follow the lawful direction of staff and attempted to assault them.” Kim says that although she did refuse transfer, she was not violent. In response to a request for the video footage of the transfer, Wright directed HuffPost to file a formal public records request.

While at WCCW, Kim made friends, finally got clothes that fit, and recently completed a one-year computer programming degree. She is a few credits away from completing her associate’s degree, with high honors.

On Monday, Lisa Kanamu, who has been incarcerated at WCCW for 18 years, showed up for her weekly peer support meeting with Kim. When Kim wasn’t there, Kanamu learned what had happened from other prisoners who had witnessed the transfer. She was devastated.

“I love Amber dearly,” Kanamu said, describing her as smart, “dry funny,” and exceedingly generous, volunteering her time to help others learn math. It felt like only a matter of time until Kim referred to her as “Mom,” Kanamu said.

“That’s how we are here though. Because we are not with our families. We’re with each other. We celebrate our wins together, our triumphs, we mourn our losses together. Birthdays, holidays, we do it all together. So we become a familial unit. And Amber was quickly growing into my family unit,” Kanamu said.

“She didn’t deserve this.”