Judge: Maryland prison mistreated transgender inmate

Source: AP

By JULIET LINDERMAN

BALTIMORE (AP) — A transgender inmate who says she was called "it" and "some kind of animal" by guards who watched her shower has won a legal victory that forces the Maryland prison system to better train for how to treat transgender people, advocates say.

Neon Brown, who goes by Sandy, said in a grievance that she was sent to the state prison at Patuxent in February 2014 for a psychological screening. Brown said she was placed in solitary confinement, and kept there for 66 days despite a directive from the jail warden that staff shouldn't segregate her from the rest of the population. During that time, she was routinely harassed by guards who made fun of her while she showered, including one who told her to commit suicide, Brown said in the complaint.

"She told me I should kill myself, and that I'm not a woman, that I'll never be her," Brown said of a corrections officer who regularly harassed her.

Administrative Law Judge Denise Oakes Shaffer ruled in August that Brown's treatment violated the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, saying the prison "failed to train all employees in how to effectively and professionally communicate with transgender inmates."

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