Zahara Green was 17 when she began transitioning. To pay for it requires some sort of income. That was a problem.
It wasn’t long after that she began shoplifting from various Walmarts — landing her with a prison sentence and a life ban from the retailer. She says she doesn’t think this anymore, but at the time, theft felt like her only option.
I did not think it was possible to find a job as a transgender person in Georgia. All the trans people I knew were either shoplifting, forging checks, or prostituting,” she said. “I didn’t know a single transgender person who had a job.
--Zahara Green
So Zahara
ended up in Rogers State Prison in 2012.
According to a 2009 California study a transgender woman in an all male facility is about 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than any other inmate.
Under federal law, states must seriously consider transgender inmates’ safety concerns — and the Georgia Department of Corrections has said it has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct. Yet the state of Georgia placed Green in a men’s prison, where she faced a greater risk of being assaulted. Around the country, decisions on transgender inmates’ placement and their level of protection are ultimately made on a case-by-case basis. But according to her lawsuit, these often ambiguous decisions and lack of safety oversight may have played a role in Zahara Green’s alleged rape by another inmate — not while they mingled in general population, but while she was being secured in “protective custody.”Two months into her sentence an officer took her to a dorm in Rogers. dropped her off and walked away.
I kind of just felt that he was letting me out with the wolves. You’re on your own. It clicked in my mind. I found my bed, I placed my stuff on my bed, and then I sat there for about an hour and people were just coming in and out as if this was some kind of showcase.
Green was "claimed" by Darryl Ricard...a high-ranking gang member in the prison. Riccard was in the seventh year of a life sentence for aggravated child molestation, rape and kidnapping.
He basically made me his property.
--Green
For several weeks Ricard repeatedly forced Green to perform oral sex on him. Eventually Green requested Protective custody. According to the lawsuit Green has filed against the prison's warden, deputy warden, and 15 correctional officers, this is what went down:
On Sept. 21, 2012, Green and Ricard were separately admitted into protective custody. According to Green, Ricard was the chief reason she had requested the special security measures. But for still unclear reasons, when Green entered her protective custody cell around 4:30 a.m., “Ricard was waiting” there, the complaint says. “Ricard raped Green, and the Defendants to this action all knew Ricard was going to rape (or at the very least, sexually assault) Green yet permitted Ricard to sexually assault Green.” The correction officers allegedly “condoned” the rape.
According to Green's attorney Mario Williams, although security checks were supposed to be made every 30 minutes, nearly 14 hours passed before an officer discovered the situation.
Everyone has to wonder how Green’s assailant got put in protective custody on the same day and same time as Green. Then permitted to be in Green’s cell for nearly 24 hours. “This case is about more than Ricard. There has been official misconduct.
In a court document responding to Green’s complaint, a lawyer for the defendants — repeatedly referring to Green as “he” — denied that the deputy warden had read any letter about Ricard’s “oral sodomy” of Green. The response noted that Green’s mother had contacted the prison about her daughter’s safety concerns, but alleged that when asked directly, Green said she “was not afraid.” The response also said that Green was “at some point … placed in the same cell as inmate Darryl Ricard.”
After the alleged assault — when Green eventually got a guard’s attention — a sergeant came to the cell, she said. He apparently saw Ricard with a razor blade in his hand and stuck pepper spray through an opening in the cell door. Ricard quickly surrendered, Green said, and they were both separately removed from the cell. Later, Green was taken to a sexual assault examination nurse, who performed a rape kit.
Local and national groups have rallied around Green. Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary People Society described Green as "humble and quiet" but also "tormented and traumatized"...unable to talk at length about the incident without breaking into tears.
After a couple of weeks in protective custody at Rogers Green was transferred to Georgia State Prison. She immediately requested protective custody. She was eventually placed in a unit made up of single cells which housed only transgender inmates.
I was the sixth or seventh on transgender hormone therapy.
--Green
Green says she felt safe there.But her life really began to change for the better when she was transferred to Atlanta Transitional Facility. She says her eyes were opened to new possibilities.
She has now been on parole since she was released in March, began school in August (she is studying to become a paralegal) and now has a job at Walgreens. She has helped her transgender friends also find jobs. Now 25, she says, "There’s a better life for me."
She says she hopes that one outcome of her lawsuit is that transgender people are no longer tested out in the general population before prison officials see that it is not a safe fit. The Prison Rape Elimination Act forces states to take transgender inmates' safety concerns under consideration, but it is not always clear that they do.
If institutions are able to make the culture shift … toward not making those auto assumptions but really focusing on what is keeping each person safe, they will start making those placements in women’s facilities more often.
--Harper Jean Tobin, National Center for Transgender Equality.