Incarcerated women are suing a state prison system that allows violent “transgender” men to be housed in female prisons.
The Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) gives violent male convicts who self-identify as transgender full access to women’s prisons, including cells, bathrooms, and showers. The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) argues these actions are discriminatory and unsafe. By forcing women to share a prison with violent men, Washington DOC is violating the fundamental constitutional rights of women to be safe while incarcerated, according to a lawsuit filed on April 27.
“Washington’s housing policy subjects women to cruel and unusual punishment by disregarding the biological differences that justify sex-separated facilities in the first place,” Leigh Ann O’Neill, an AFPI attorney representing the plaintiffs, told The Daily Wire. “I am proud to support this action on behalf of the female inmates.”
The lawsuit highlights public data showing that over 50% of males in federal prisons who self-identified as transgender between May 2024 and January 2025 were sex offenders. Placing male sex offenders in women’s prisons has resulted in physical and sexual assaults against women.
“The housing of these male inmates with females — including as bunkmates in the same cell — has led to multiple instances of violence and sexual abuse against the female inmates, persistent harassment, and the routine intimidation of female inmates in violation of their fundamental constitutional rights to serve their sentences in safety and without further punishment,” states the lawsuit. “[Washington] DOC’s Transgender Inmate Policy exposes female inmates to a population statistically more likely of having committed a sexual offense, and only females can become pregnant as a result of these offenses.”
The plaintiffs, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, Inc., and Faith Booher-Smith, are suing the Washington DOC and Tim Lang in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Corrections.
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Booher-Smith, an incarcerated woman housed at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW), alleges she was physically assaulted in August 2025 by Christopher Williams, a man who self-identifies as female.
“Williams approached her silently from behind and struck her on the side of her face with his fist, then grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground before kicking her repeatedly with such force that she sustained visible injuries, including, facial bruising, a laceration in her mouth, and swelling to her jaw and eye,” states the lawsuit.
Williams is described in the lawsuit as a “six-foot-four, ‘biologically intact’ male” and “convicted child sex offender” that allegedly assaulted and harassed his former cell mate, Mozzy Clark.
“As Ms. Clark has alleged, Williams sexually assaulted her for months during the time she was forced to share a cell with him,” states the lawsuit. “Williams masturbated in front of her, groped her while she slept, and repeatedly threatened her with rape.”
Clark brought allegations against Williams in a lawsuit she filed against the Washington DOC in December 2024.
Claiming he did not feel safe “being classified as male,” Williams repeatedly asked to be transferred to WCCW, public records show. A Washington DOC Housing Assignment Review committee denied his request in November 2019, recommending instead that he was transferred to a single cell in a male prison due to his “past violence towards women,” public records show.
When Williams requested to be transferred to WCCW in the summer of 2021, Eric Jackson, the former Superintendent of a male prison where Williams had been incarcerated, recommended against his transfer to WCCW due to his history of violence against women.
“Due to Williams’ serious infraction history and the most recent conviction where Williams assaulted and inflicted serious life-threatening injuries to a female victim, would not recommend placement at WCCW,” a document from August 2021 exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire states.
Despite these recommendations, the Washington DOC moved Williams to WCCW in the fall of 2021 in alignment with its transgender housing policies. Within months of his arrival to WCCW, Williams allegedly assaulted Clark.
Williams is serving a sentence for first-degree assault and has an earned release date of 2038, according to previous reporting. He is currently being housed in a male prison, according to the Washington DOC website.
The Washington DOC published its first transgender policy allowing inmates to be housed according to their gender identity, rather than biology, in February 2020.
“Nothing in the Policy even prohibits a male who is sexually attracted to females — let alone a male convicted of raping females — from ultimately sharing an unsupervised cell with a female inmate, so long as he claims to ‘identify’ as a woman,” states the lawsuit.
“Male inmates known to Plaintiffs who are attracted to females and who make no effort to conform to a female ‘gender identity’ are permitted to be housed at WCCW, share a cell with female inmates, enter the bathrooms and other intimate spaces designated for females, and even have sexual relations with female inmates.”
“Women are uniquely exposed to risks — including the possibility of pregnancy — that male inmates do not face. That disparity underscores a fundamental violation of the women’s equal protection rights,” O’Neill told The Daily Wire.
Washington DOC has some of the most radical transgender policies in the country. It further expanded its gender ideology policies in October 2023 after reaching a settlement with Disability Rights Washington (DRW), a federally funded nonprofit that claimed the prison system was violating the rights of transgender inmates by failing to provide medical sex-change procedures. The Washington DOC now provides inmates with cross-sex clothing, surgery, and sex-change medical interventions as part of the settlement.
The AFPI legal team says this special treatment of men is further evidence of discrimination against women, who have to pay for personal items and accommodations that are provided to trans-identifying male inmates at no cost.
“[Washington] DOC routinely categorizes medically necessary care for female inmates as ‘elective’ or ‘non-urgent,’ resulting in delay or denial of treatment. At the same time, sex-rejecting procedures for trans-identifying male inmates are approved and prioritized under standards that are no more urgent—and in many cases less urgent or entirely unnecessary—than the care denied to female
inmates,” states the lawsuit.
The Washington DOC told The Daily Wire it does not comment on pending litigation.
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