In 2015, Ashley Diamond was released from prison after “crimes” even the judge admitted she only did for survival – like rummaging through trash bins for food. But from police officers to the KKK, she was harassed throughout her entire parole in Rome, Georgia.
Now, after a technical parole violation, she’s now back in prison – a men’s prison!
Diamond recently revealed that she’s been sexually assaulted in prison SIXTEEN times since 2019! Prison officials even told another incarcerated person to lie, saying Diamond assaulted HIM. When he refused to lie about her, they tortured him with solitary confinement.
According to federal law, prisons decide where transgender prisoners like Diamond should go “after asking them where they would feel safest.” But, they almost never do.
47% of Black trans people have been incarcerated. And most trans women are in men’s prisons – where they’re 13x more likely to be assaulted.
The few trans women actually in women’s prisons have rarely posed a threat – in fact, the other women often harass THEM!
Whatever you think about trans people, Ashley Diamond's honesty about the brutalization and dehumanization of Black trans women in the prison system is not only truthfulness, but courage. We need to follow her lead.
If prisons can't even follow the laws passed to reform them, we need more than reform. We need abolition.