A man who dresses like a woman is distressed that he wasn’t treated with the kid gloves that he would have preferred during his stay in a Utah jail. And this is despite the fact that nothing really bad happened to him. But he is transgender so we must all accept that they always need special treatment, even though that’s exactly what he got, it just wasn’t enough for the poor little thing.
A transgender woman’s stay at a Utah jail revealed good, bad and possibly dangerous practices
All things considered, Ella Mae Vail said her stay at the Weber County jail was probably the best interaction she’s had with law enforcement. Most of the correctional officers used her preferred name and pronouns and seemed to care about her well-being.
Well that’s a hell of a lot more than I can say about the treatment I received in jail in the past. Few, if any of the correctional officers seemed to care about my well-being, and some called us “ladies” although we were not, some went so far as to call us faggots, although we were not. Did it hurt my widdle feewings? NO! It’s jail! Harsh treatment is to be expected and it’s just words! But all the coddling Vail received was still not enough for him.
But for all the good, there was some bad.
Like how Vail, a transgender woman, was so scared of being housed among men in the general jail population that she hurt herself to be placed in a mental health ward.
Which, if I had my way, is where he should have been assigned in the first place, actually. Men who think they are women are by definition mentally ill. And while the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association disagree, how can it not be so? How is it any different than an anorexic thinking she’s overweight when in reality she looks like a concentration camp scarecrow?
Or how before she was assigned to the mental health ward, male inmates would come to the window of her cell and say obscene things to her or catcall, she said. Or how the men housed in the mental health ward had a line of sight into the communal shower and watched her.
That happens to people who aren’t confused about their gender too. And judging by its mugshot, I seriously doubt any of that happened because . . . well, just look:
The face that sunk a thousand ships and caused the paint to peel off the wall of his cell.
The jailers “did their best, but there were really some failings,” Vail said.
Check it out, dude. Jail isn’t supposed to be a country club. Don’t like it? Don’t break the law and you won’t be subjected to it.
Vail’s situation highlights how Utah jails are being forced to confront changing societal norms regarding diversity and inclusivity, and parallels the arrest last July of Lesley Ann Shaw — who identifies as transgender and agender and uses the pronouns they and them.
So it’s transgender yet has no particular gender. That is just, pardon the pun, nuts. And how can you refer to yourself as they and them? Is that in reference to you and the demons that obviously inhabit your person?
Shaw was arrested during a protest at the headquarters of the Management and Training Center, which operates detention centers for undocumented immigrants. Shaw said they were repeatedly misgendered in Davis County jail and underwent a so-called breast sweep despite not having breasts. They were also forced to accept a bra.
Well, you insist you’re a woman so you need a bra. I think that would make you happy, make you feel more like the woman that you aren’t.
A Salt Lake Tribune analysis of jail policies at the time found that a transgender inmate’s housing situation varied depending on where they were booked.
And had Vail been arrested in Salt Lake County, she likely would have been housed with women, and some of the concerns she had about showering would have been erased.
“I don’t feel threatened when I’m showering next to women,” she said, “because I’m a woman.”
Uh huh. A woman with a penis. And how would the real women feel showering with you? But their comfort doesn’t matter, does it? It’s all about you. The needs of you freaks who comprise just .6% of the US population are more important than the vast majority of the county’s inhabitants, right?
But Lt. Joshua Marigoni, the Weber County jail spokesman, said jailers must also consider the safety of the other female inmates.
He said that while his jail hasn’t crafted a formal policy on transgender inmates, the housing decision is typically made based on the gender designation on their state-issued ID or their anatomy, specifically whether they’ve had sex reassignment surgery, commonly called bottom surgery.
He also said that the jail took steps to make sure Vail felt safe and made sure she was never outside her cell alone with male inmates. Marigoni said he couldn’t confirm that men in the mental health ward watched Vail shower, but said based on the shower’s location, it’s possible.
Possible but disgusting. We’ve all seen how hideous he is. But hey, it’s jail and there are some perverts in there.
Regardless, the situation had Vail’s attorney, Jonathan Jemming, wondering: If jail officials are making an effort to sequester Vail within a male population, why not do the same for her in a female population, where she would feel more comfortable and face fewer risks?
Oh, I don’t know. Because he is male?
He also said having correctional officers present when Vail was around men didn’t guarantee she would be safe.
Vail’s stint in the Weber County jail began March 2, when she and her partner Svetlana Lowrey were passing through Utah as they relocated to Virginia.
It was early and overcast. Vail’s girlfriend slept in the back seat as the two traveled a nondescript section of Interstate 84, just outside Riverdale in Weber County.
Aha! “Vail’s GIRLFRIEND.” So this man who thinks he’s a woman and has a penis likes women. Yet Jemming would like to see him locked up with real women? Does the safety of the real women not matter? Of course there’s always the possibility that Svetlana is also really a man. It’s hard to tell from the picture of her. Looks suspicious to me. You make the call.
Vail got behind a slow semi-truck and signaled to pass it. While she said the light blinked a few times, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulled her over for not signaling for the required two seconds.
As Trooper Jared Hayes talked to Vail, he smelled marijuana inside the car, he later wrote in a probable cause statement. When he questioned Vail about it, she said she had smoked six or seven hours earlier, when she was still in Oregon, where recreational marijuana is legal. Hayes found a pipe, marijuana and rolling papers in the car.
He arrested Vail on suspicion of drug possession and driving with a measurable amount of marijuana in her system, a less serious DUI offense. She was booked into jail according to her anatomy and the information on her driver’s license, which identifies her as a man.
Dash camera video of Vail’s arrest, released to The Tribune through an open-records request, shows she was worried about her well-being early on.
On the drive to the jail, Vail cleared her throat and asked Hayes, “Am I going to be safe in the jail? Do you have transgender people ever in there?”
Hayes responded before she finished the question, “Yeah, you’ll be safe.” It’s the jail’s job to keep her safe, he said, although he added that he wasn’t sure how they would house Vail among the other inmates if she couldn’t make bail.
Vail was released from custody March 12. Data shows fears about Vail’s safety while incarcerated were based in the experiences of other transgender inmates.
The article then drags on and on about how trannies are more likely to be sexually victimized in jail than normal people. Including this:
Statistics from the Department of Justice from 2011-12 indicate that about 40 percent of transgender inmates in state or federal prison have reported some kind of sexual victimization. An estimated 27 percent of transgender inmates in local jails reported sexual abuse.
Those numbers are considerably higher than the estimates for inmates in general. In that same time period, the DOJ said 4 percent of state and federal inmates and just more than 3 percent of local jail inmates reported sexual victimization.
OK, but are those statistics misleading? Might it be that the actual that the statistics for normal people are actually higher and that these crimes just aren’t being reported due to fear of being labeled a rat and then being killed? But maybe transgenders feel more comfortable reporting it because they are so “special” and with the current social climate being so concerned about their well being, they can feel more certain about being protected and segregated. The same can’t be said of your average inmate.
Marigoni, with Weber County, said his jail is working on a formal policy.
Right now, Marigoni said inmates are booked according to the designation on their state ID. He said jailers take into account an inmate’s safety concerns, and will house them accordingly, such as in a single cell, like they did for Vail.
“Basically our big thing is we don’t want to treat them in any way that they’re punished because of the process they’re going through,” Marigoni said.
It’s a hard line to walk, as jails and prisons are holding facilities that separate inmates by gender and a number of other factors to keep people safe. Thus, it can be difficult for jails to accommodate individuals who don’t fit within the gender binary.
But sending a transgender inmate to a solitary cell can seem like punishment, Meerkamper said, exactly what Marigoni said his jail staff strives not to do.
Meh! I always preferred a single cell actually. You don’t have to worry about your cellmate snoring, his body odor, constant chatter, or other annoying habits. That’s as blissful as it gets in jail.
Vail ultimately spent 10 days in jail before she appeared in court on March 11 and Riverdale Justice Court Judge Reuben J. Renstrom lowered her bail from $2,200 cash to $200 cash.
She posted bond, and Vail and Lowery continued on their move to Virginia. Renstrom hasn’t waived Vail’s scheduled court appearance in April, but Jemming said he plans to ask for that change so Vail doesn’t have to find a way back west.
The day after Vail was released, she and Lowery stopped at a gas station along the road. Vail went inside, and Lowrey reflected on the couple’s unexpected stay in Utah.
Lowrey said she was worried sick for Vail. While her partner was in custody, Lowrey passed time sitting in her car. She spent nights there, too, or on strangers’ couches. She said her mind churned over anxious thoughts.
Turns out, she said, Vail was treated better than they expected.
And yet.
“At the end of the day,” Lowery said, “What happened happened. We did what we did, but it’s so messed up in this country that we get literally punished more than anybody else does. Anybody else comes through [jail] … they get put with their people, and for us, we get a higher punishment.”
No you don’t. You get put with the people who’s genitals match your own. No one should be made to change normal standards to suit the wants of only 1.4 million of the US population. I, however, have a solution. I think it would be in your best interest to just stop breaking the law and all of these concerns of yours will melt away. Otherwise, stop whining.
