If you’ve ever wondered what a godless society devoid of everything good and decent looks like, what follows is a snapshot of the world’s largest women’s prison, Central California Women’s Facility.
Based on daily reports I receive from my sisters inside (I was formerly incarcerated), I no longer recognize the prison or the culture of psychological terror they are being forced to adopt. Currently, under the implementation of “The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act,” males, including hardened criminals, are permitted to self-identify as the opposite sex and are allowed to transfer to prison facilities based on their chosen “gender identity.”
Any rational person can see the intentional indifference of California’s lawmakers’ efforts to prioritize predators. This recently enacted law does not even require a male inmate to take cross-sex hormones or have sexual reassignment surgery prior to transfer.
A good friend of mine, Cathleen, whom I met many years ago while in prison, is firmly standing on her Christian faith, and she is paying for it dearly. Her freedom, her civil liberties, and her right to the pursuit of happiness that she earned back after serving decades in prison have recently evaporated. As I explained during the bonus episode of The Christian Post’s podcast series “Generation Indoctrination” and will again next month in Dallas at CP’s public event, what she and others are enduring is a nightmare. Cathleen’s ordeal is a case study of what incarcerated women regularly experience in this morally convoluted, torturous environment.
Cathleen was found suitable for parole by the board of parole at hearings last year. It is always a time of celebration when a person is granted parole, especially when they have worked hard for it. I met Cathleen in the honor dorm in 2009 where she still lived until very recently. A trans-identified male and self-proclaimed satanist that transferred from the men’s prison violated her privacy many times by entering the toilet when she was in the stall. In the months before this incident, another woman from a different prison yard told me about this same guy, that he is 6’5” and is “a big dangerous man who was convicted of murder 40 years ago, and killed another inmate while he was in the men’s prison.”
“I was and still am scared to death of this man. I was afraid to report him to the guards,” she added.
Others noticed what was happening, and they decided to submit inmate complaints together. None of these women were prepared for the psychological warfare that ensued as the predator is a skilled manipulator who has had approximately 40 years to perfect his craft. After receiving a tip from a confidential informant that the three women who used the correct avenue to voice their concerns were in danger, all three were arrested for their own safety and taken to administrative segregation. All three of these women were honor dorm residents with jobs and records free of write-ups, which is required for them to live in the honor dorm, unless one transferred from a men’s prison — which was set forth under California’s law, SB 132.
After being released from segregation, the women received serious rules violations for false reporting and harassment. Cathleen was then referred to an en banc hearing either by the Decision Review Unit or the Governor, because of the new information about her rule violations. En banc hearings are open to the public and give supporters and those in opposition to a person’s release an opportunity to speak. Her hearing was full of formerly incarcerated women who served many years together, some of whom guided me and mentored me during my time in prison.
Employment and housing were secured for her and peer support was available from some of the most notable and successful ex-lifers in California. But Cathleen’s parole grant was vacated and the panel voted to reverse her suitability grant. She was ordered a new hearing as her serious rules violations were still pending as she was not yet found guilty of anything.
This piece was published by The Christian Post.
