North Carolina's American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is threatening legal action if the state continues to imprison a transgender woman in a correctional facility for males.
Kanautica Zayre-Brown, a 37-year-old woman, was found guilty of insurance fraud and obtaining property under false pretenses in 2017. She was sentenced to nine years and 11 months in prison.
While the ACLU says her sentence was fair, the civil rights organization believes her treatment is far from legal, the News & Observer reports.
Since receiving her sentence, Zayre-Brown has been housed in Harnett Correctional Institution in Lillington, North Carolina. Harnett is a male prison facility.
The ACLU sent a letter to the Department of Public Safety's director, Kenneth Lassiter, on March 5 detailing its concern for Zayre-Brown's mental, physical and emotional health.
“Every day she is housed among men, forced to shower in group showers for men and subjected to the constant indignities and threats to her health and safety that come with being stripped of her core identity,” wrote Sneha Shah, the staff attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.
Zayre-Brown and her husband, Dionne Brown, are concerned she will be sexually assaulted, as she has reportedly been forced to sleep in gowns alongside men and because prison officials have denied her access to pants.
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According to WITN, the state still refers to Zayre-Brown by her deadname despite the fact she legally changed it. In her most recent attempt to receive a transfer to a woman's prison, the state said Zayre-Brown had to stay where she is because it sees her like a man "despite what she was thinking in her head."
The woman has faced similar prejudice at Harnett, having met a medical professional who “repeatedly threatened to thwart her transfer and medical treatment, citing her religious beliefs," according to the ACLU. Fortunately, that issue has been resolved, and Zayre-Brown's hormone treatments are back on track.
The ACLU insists that Zayre-Brown's imprisonment at her current facility is a violation of her rights under the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which offers protection for jailed LGBTQ persons.
The organization has asked this be corrected by transferring Zayre-Brown to a women’s facility and giving her access to private bathing, proper medical treatment, grooming products and female-gendered clothing.
“At this time, Ms. Zayre-Brown’s physical and emotional health is greatly deteriorating and if [the Department of Public Safety] does not act soon, dire consequences are likely to result,” the nonprofit organization said.
The ACLU has given the Department of Public Safety until April 1 to move Zayre-Brown. If the state misses that deadline, the organization has threatened to take North Carolina to court.
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