Olivia* served Seattle’s incarcerated women as a correctional nurse for five years. During that time, her facility allegedly dismissed complaints that female inmates were enduring sexual harassment and misconduct at the hands of transgender-identifying male inmates.

Now, Olivia is speaking out because she wants the public to know that women in jails and prisons face unacceptable risks from gender self-identification policies, such as Washington state’s DOC 490.700 Transgender, Intersex, and/or Gender Non-binary Housing and Supervision, which allows male prisoners who “self-identify as transgender, intersex, and/or gender non-binary” to transfer to women-only facilities. 

Olivia, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, worked as a charge nurse in Seattle’s King County Correctional Facility (KCCF) for several years. She revealed to IW Features that the jail administration neglected to act even after receiving many concerns from front-line staff about the safety and dignity of female inmates. In fact, according to Olivia, jail leadership would not even confirm whether they were logging or tracking female inmates’ formal complaints.

Under King County’s gender self-identification policy, female inmates are not recognized as vulnerable. They are not asked whether they feel comfortable sharing intimate housing spaces with males, Olivia said, nor can they request female-only housing because that is no longer an option.

Those who dare to speak out against this law and its consequences aren’t just ignored — they’re silenced.

When it was discovered that jail staff were circulating a petition to improve conditions for female inmates, Olivia said jail leadership doubled down on their efforts to maintain the status quo. Olivia told IW Features that she was the subject of a Human Resources investigation and was told to stop speaking with colleagues about this issue. She resigned from her position after jail leadership allegedly admitted that King County had no interest in balancing the safety of females and males identifying as transgender women.

“Jails and prisons are unlike any community setting. Prisoners have no privacy, no ability to choose their roommates, no self-defense measures other than their own bodily strength,” Olivia said. “These attributes alone make female prisoners especially vulnerable, but one can imagine how this vulnerability is increased when facility policies allow male prisoners to transfer to female units largely based on their word.”

This new normal for female inmates arose in 2020 when King County pledged to change its rules regarding gender self-identification in jail. The entire state has since adopted similar policies. Though Washington state law says male inmates who self-identify as women must make a compelling case to be reassigned to female prisons, Olivia said that, more often than not, all that is required is self-identification. If a male inmate says he is a woman, then jails and prisons will treat him as one.

This has created serious safety concerns for female inmates. 

Olivia alleged that even when leadership was made aware of the risks, they could not guarantee women’s safety due to consistent staffing shortages. These conditions, she said, were breeding grounds for mistakes and incidents.

“There were multiple times that I saw males and females housed together in a given unit and the officer on duty had no awareness of this,” Olivia said. “I saw a ‘maximum-security’ male inmate misclassified as ‘medium security’ when housed in a woman’s unit, creating a substantial risk to the females there.”

In a particularly disturbing instance, Olivia alleged an aggressive male inmate, who had exposed himself to other male inmates while in the men’s unit, was transferred to the women’s unit after self-identifying as a woman. He “predictably went on to expose himself to female staff and female inmates in the women’s unit and exhibit violent behavior towards officers,” she said.

Olivia said her colleagues on the health staff recommended that this inmate be returned to men’s housing. In spite of these recommendations, this inmate remained in the women’s unit.

Health staff strongly objected to the admission of another male inmate who was facing rape charges and other severe infractions against young women, Olivia said. He was allowed into female housing anyway. 

In another case, female inmates allegedly filed a complaint in writing that a male had started masturbating in front of them. Staff observed yet another male who allegedly was “deliberately watching women in the shower,” Olivia said. She added that none of these documented accounts prompted leadership to take action to protect female inmates. 

IW Features contacted King County’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention regarding Olivia’s allegations. They did not respond to our request for comment.

Women, especially those in vulnerable environments such as prisons, have become collateral damage in the fight over gender ideology. Their safety, their concerns, and their rights are too often sidelined by state and prison officials who are more concerned about running afoul of the gender activist mob. 

“They are prioritizing lawsuit mitigation and threats from ‘trans rights’ advocacy groups,” such as Disability Rights Washington, a nonprofit organization that previously took the Washington state Department of Corrections to court for being insufficiently “inclusive” of trans-identifying prisoners, Olivia said. “I was told by multiple people in leadership that Disability Rights Washington was actively directing policy, and that the facility was in full compliance with their demands to avoid lawsuits.”

She continued, “In our left-leaning region, erring on the side of protecting women is probably a legal and political liability for [Seattle’s] elected officials.”

Olivia said she chose to speak out because the principles of equity and social justice, which the Left claims to champion, are not being fairly applied to all vulnerable populations, especially women. She says leadership advised her to “let the women advocate for themselves.” This response, she said, “is not consistent with the principles of justice, trauma-informed care, or a nurse’s ethical duty to advocate for her patients.”

Though she has left KCCF, Olivia has not abandoned that ethical duty. After resigning, she started working with two organizations—Sovereign Women Speak (SWS) and The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR)—that reach out directly to incarcerated women, raising awareness and advocating for legislation to restore safety and dignity to women’s carceral spaces in Washington State.

“Transgender people deserve safe public spaces,” she said. “But so do women. The manner in which gender self-identification policies are carried out in this setting is dangerous. This is a public health issue that should unite us.”

*To protect the identity of the storyteller, a pseudonym has been used throughout.