Safety Concerns Rise Over Transgender Policy in Minnesota Prisons

Minnesota’s decision to allow biological males identifying as transgender women to reside in women’s prisons has raised safety concerns among inmates, family members, and advocates. Supported by Governor Tim Walz’s administration, this policy has led to fears among incarcerated women in the Shakopee women’s prison, who claim the policy disregards their right to a secure environment.

A former inmate at the Shakopee Women’s Correctional Facility, Rebeca Warmbo, has come forward as an advocate for women who are still behind bars and find themselves falling victim to Walz’s poor prison policies. 

Warmbo shared that many female inmates report experiencing distress and feeling “scared” and “traumatized” by the presence of trans women in the facility. Concerns intensified after allegations surfaced of prior incidents involving transgender inmates with histories of violence or sexual offenses being housed with female inmates. 

Warmbo explained that the presence of males with a history of sexual violence is traumatizing “Because [some of] these men are sex offenders, and a lot of the women in there have been abused or had sex offenses done against them.”

Family members of these inmates have voiced objections, arguing that the policy places women in situations that could compromise their physical and emotional safety.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections reported 48 transgender persons in the system, four of them being in a women’s facility. The four transgender women serving felony charges in a women’s prison facility are Nathan Charles Johnson, Bradley Richard Sirvio, Sean Windingland, and Elijah Thomas Berryman.

Gender Justice, a left-wing group, represented Craig “Christina” Lusk after the Minnesota DOC denied his approval to be placed in a women’s facility as well as rejected his request for sex-change surgeries. 

Lusk and Gender Justice were awarded $448,904 to split amongst themselves. The funding for this settlement came from none other than taxpayer dollars under the Walz administration.

In a 2023 statement, DOC Commissioner Pail Schnell said: “The DOC is constitutionally obligated to provide medically necessary care for incarcerated people, which includes treatment for gender dysphoria. Based on the facts of this specific case, the incarcerated person will now have access to the medical care she needs, she deserves, and we have a legal obligation to provide.”

Families, employees, and inmates are outraged at the state’s response to this settlement and further policy that puts female inmates in danger. 

Last week, Alicia Beckman, a former teacher at the women’s facility, resigned from her position, claiming she was blindsided by the situation surrounding Lusk. 

Beckman came forward and explained, “The women are scared to speak up. Many women are incarcerated because of the men they spend their time with, and we all have freedom of choice, but I guarantee that probably 75% of our population committed a crime because there was violence against them by a man, or they felt coerced into doing something for that man.”

Minnesota is one of the 11 states that allow transgender females to fulfill their sentence from a women’s facility.