Two female inmates at a federal prison for women with special needs in Fort Worth, Texas, saw a landmark early court win in November when a judge ordered transgender-identifying male inmates to be housed away from them following claims of sexual abuse.
But rather than keep the biological males completely separate from the female prison population at Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Carswell, Texas, Warden Tyal Rule has chosen to move the males to different housing units to live among other female inmates during litigation, a court filing first obtained by Breitbart News alleges.
In the November temporary restraining order, a judge in one of the nation’s most conservative district courts gave Rule the option to house trans-identifying male inmates in their own area or in another female housing unit away from the two plaintiffs, inmates Rhonda Fleming and Miriam Herrera. Rule chose the latter, allowing biological males, most of whom have not undergone surgical modifications, to live among other female inmates, the filing alleges. Several female inmates in the housing units where the trans-identifying males have been moved are now asking to join the lawsuit in the hopes of also securing protection for themselves.
Attorneys Brian Field and John Greil with D.C. law firm Schaerr|Jaffe LLP are representing four women who are asking the court to include them in the lawsuit, called a “motion to intervene” in legalese. Attorneys first asked for inmates Elizabeth Hardin and Brenda Kirk to be added to the lawsuit on Nov. 10, and on Wednesday they are asking the court to add inmates Jasmine Meabon and Keisha Williams, who are now living with transgender-identifying males who were moved into their housing unit following the court’s order.
“Having been ordered to protect Plaintiffs Fleming and Herrera from biological males, the Warden simply took a male inmate and moved him into a different women’s unit in the same prison,” the attorneys wrote in the proposed complaint. “Instead of solving the problem, he chose to injure different women.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), appears to be against more female inmates seeking redress in this case, asking the court on Dec. 1 not to allow more plaintiffs to be added to the case on procedural grounds. The DOJ’s position seems surprising, given President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating the removal of biological men from women’s prisons. The executive order has been on pause during other litigation brought by transgender-identifying inmates in a D.C. case, but that litigation would not bar the segregation of trans-identifying males inside women’s prisons for safety purposes.
The DOJ did not respond to request for comment by time of publication, and the BOP told Breitbart News via email that it “does not comment on pending litigation or matters that are the subject of legal proceedings.”
When asked about apparent DOJ opposition in the case, Field and Greil said: “That’s the million-dollar question.”
“It’s clear that Warden Tyal Rule is fighting the president’s policy, and he’s likely hoping that the White House doesn’t notice,” they told Breitbart News. “In fact, even when he faced a court order, Warden Rule did the absolute minimum to comply. It’s possible that this matter has flown under the radar at Main Justice and the White House, but DOJ needs to put eyes on it, hold folks accountable, and make sure that the President’s policies become reality.”
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