Trans prisoner was pepper-sprayed and says he was invasively searched at Philly’s female jail
October 23, 2019 | The Philadelphia Inquirer | Pranshu Verma
It started with too many drinks and an argument over who should clean the house. Zack got angry and landed a punch. His boyfriend grabbed a table leg and hit him in the chest. It ended with the cops at their University City apartment and Zack in handcuffs with one big worry.
As a transgender man, he was frightened about being put in a female jail and what the guards might do to him. “I didn’t want to be outed,” he later said.
Zack, who is 34, transitioned in his mid-20s to identify as a man. Now in state prison, he agreed to share his story only if called by his first name.
In November 2016, he was locked up in Riverside Correctional Facility, the city’s only female jail, where, he said, he faced a series of dehumanizing abuses.