Female Inmate Allegedly Raped by Transgender Inmate in California Women’s Prison

A female inmate at the Central California Facility for Women claimed to have observed the immediate aftermath of a sexual assault involving a transgender inmate.

Mimi Le, in a sworn statement to attorneys representing the Women’s Liberation Front, detailed the incident that will be part of the organization’s legal action against California.

According to information obtained from court documents by Reduxx, Le stated that she was among several inmates who witnessed a man, who identified as a woman and was housed in the women’s prison, committing what was described as a “sexual assault.”

Le explained that on May 19, following reports from other female inmates of a rape incident, a female inmate was moved to a medical-administrative facility.

She was described as barely conscious. Less than an hour later, the victim was rushed out on a stretcher under a “Code 3” alert, indicating she was unresponsive and could not be immediately revived.

Le and fellow inmates identified the alleged perpetrator as Jonathan Robertson, a transgender individual named Siyaah Skylit who is biologically male.

Multiple inmates said they had heard Robertson shouting, “Fuck all you bitches. I’ll rape you. I’ll rape your mama. I’ll fuck all you bitches up — there is nothing you bitches can do.” He has also spit at fellow inmates, the women said.

“This was very triggering and saddening for everybody,” Le reportedly wrote in her declaration. “To be threatened by a man with doing a thing that he can do, that he is capable of doing, that he may already have done to other women, is terrifying.”

“They were concerned and discussed how to protect themselves; I convinced them to just go to their rooms while I asked for an update from the Captain to figure out how to proceed,” Le added.

Later, Le said she went to correctional staff to inquire about what, if anything, would be done about Robertson’s threatening behavior, at which point she learned he “had already been released back onto the yard.”

But “once the Captain learned of the rape threats, he decided along with the Sergeant to move [him] to administrative segregation,” the inmate said, adding that “before they could do that, the Warden overruled them, saying that an inmate-to-inmate threat is not an offense sufficient.”

Le went on to say that two days later, she and several other inmates were told they had been placed on a “confidential,” referring to a list of inmates who are considered to have their immediate safety under threat.

In her statement, Le said men “get to transfer to women’s prison because the prison fails to keep them safe from rape by other men in men’s prison — but now the prison is protecting [them] by getting [them] out of the men’s prison only to let [them] terrorize women with rape and violence threats.”

Surprisingly, Robertson was swiftly transferred to the California Institution for Women, a women’s correctional facility with lower security measures, shortly after making rape threats, as reported by Reduxx.

“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the reported rape at CCWF and by the reported actions of prison administrators, who have obviously failed in their duties to protect female inmates,” Women’s Liberation Front executive director Mahri Irvine told Reduxx.

“As the months pass by, more and more sexual assaults are being reported in prisons across the country — predatory male inmates are targeting vulnerable women, and women’s fears are disregarded by prison officials,” Irvine added.

According to the Bureau of Prisons, nearly half of male inmates who identify as female have been convicted of a sexual offense, in contrast to only 11 percent of biological males who do not identify as female.

In California, 33.8 percent of incarcerated men trying to transfer to women’s prisons are registered sex offenders. This group, comprising up to one-third of the total, is responsible for as many as half of the rapes that occur within the prison system, as reported by the Bureau of Prisons.

“How many more rapes must these women endure before prison administrators and state legislators will be held accountable for their abject failure to protect female inmates from predatory men?” Irvine asked.

Robertson has been the target of transgender activist efforts to move him from a male facility to the women’s institution where he currently lives. In 2021, Pink News, an LGBTQ news site, launched a petition advocating for Robertson’s release from prison.

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