A former female inmate is suing the City of New York after being “repeatedly sexually assaulted” by a male inmate who had been housed in the women’s section of Rikers Island. Known only as Rose Doe, the inmate says she was subjected to repeat abuse by a male who was permitted to stay in women’s protective custody after claiming to be “transgender.”
The lawsuit was filed at the Bronx Supreme Court in November of 2023, and the complaint details the extent of the human rights violations Rose Doe alleges to have suffered.
Rose Doe was first housed at the Rose M. Singer Center, the only women’s facility on Rikers Island, in December of 2021. Shortly after, a male inmate was transferred into Doe’s unit on the basis of his self-declared “gender identity.” New York City’s Department of Corrections (DOC) adopted a policy on transgender inmates in 2018, with inmates being housed based on their self-identified gender identity unless the outcome of a federally required safety assessment or the preferences of the inmate require alternative housing.
According to the suit, DOC records show that at the time the male entered the women’s housing unit, he was being investigated for his potential involvement in a prostitution ring operating within Rikers Island. The ring involved staff and inmates, and the DOC was reportedly aware that he was likely moved to the female unit to facilitate his procurement of female inmates to pimp out to male inmates and staff.
Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleges multiple officials within the DOC leveraged the City’s liberal transgender inmate guidance to ensure the male inmate could remain in the female unit.
According to the complaint, the male inmate was “instructed” to claim he was transgender so he could stay in the female facility where he had easy access to female inmates.
Rose Doe was sexually assaulted by the male inmate on April 6, 2022, just months after being housed at the Rose M. Singer Center. Just two days prior to her own assault, Rose Doe witnessed the male inmate coerce a mentally ill female inmate into performing sex acts.
The complaint also details that the male inmate had a “full beard” when he was moved into the women’s unit, and would frequently admit that he was not transgender. According to the complaint, within hours of his arrival, the male inmate began openly telling everyone in the housing unit that he was “straight and not trans and was there to have sex with women.”
Following the sexual assault, Rose Doe says she was not offered any assistance, medical treatment, mental health services, or even HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. She was also not given timely access to a rape kit, with forensic testing being delayed 10 hours following her report of the assault.
These violations of New York State Public Health Law are alleged to have been “born of a desire and/or conspiracy to cover-up and destroy evidence of the sexual assaults that [staff] knew had taken place.”
While Rose Doe’s complaint relies upon differentiating her assailant with “true” transgender people, this is not the first time the Rose M. Singer Center has come under scrutiny for housing males amongst the vulnerable female inmates.
In April of 2022, a trans-identified male inmate was convicted of raping a female prisoner while in the women’s section of the New York prison. Ramel Blount, 33, who uses the alias Diamond Blount, was sentenced to seven years after accepting a plea deal for a lesser charge of attempted rape.
While housed in the female facility, Blount approached a 33-year-old woman in the bathroom at the Rose M. Singer Center of the Rikers complex on February 8, 2021. The victim had just finished showering when Blount grabbed her by the neck, held her down and sexually assaulted her.
Other violent trans-identified male inmates currently housed at the Center include Harvey Marcelin, a serial killer who murdered and dismembered multiple women.
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