At about 8 a.m. on April 3, I was pepper sprayed by prison guards as they broke up a fight between two men inside my cell. No one helped. I poured milk in my eyes and washed my face with cold water for nearly an hour. A guard laughed as I writhed in agony.
That was only one of the many traumatic incidents that I’ve experienced as a trans woman living in a men’s prison in Washington state for 18 years. Currently, there are nearly 5,000 trans women like myself incarcerated in men’s facilities across the country — and for us, being here is especially dangerous and inhumane.
I live under the constant threat of violence. I have survived sexual assault, verbal abuse, hyper-surveillance and coercion. Men, for example, often try to pimp me out, as when I was almost sold by a cellmate for a bag of meth or, more recently, when the offer was some tobacco.
