Five years ago, Ashley Diamond was released from prison after she filed a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s denial of gender-affirming care to trans inmates. She eventually won a $250,000 settlement after the Department of Justice intervened on her behalf, and under the agreement, the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) assented to extended hormone therapy to transgender people in lockup facilities.
At the time, the resolution appeared to be a major victory for Diamond, who attempted to end her life after being denied the hormones she had been taking for 17 years. Prior to her release, the-42-year-old faced routine sexual assaults behind bars. Even after bringing the violence she faced to the attention of prison officials, she was placed in a cell with a registered sex offender, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights advocacy group which has represented Diamond in court.
Now Diamond is fighting for her life all over again after she was reincarcerated in 2019 following charges on a routine parole violation. According to a new lawsuit filed by SPLC and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Georgia Department of Corrections has failed to enforce the reforms it agreed to in 2015. This has resulted in Diamond again being denied care, in addition to being sexually assaulted 14 times.
In a statement released on Monday by SPLC and CCR, Diamond notes that she has spent nearly two years in a men’s prison, calling the experience a “nightmare.”
“I’ve been stripped of my identity,” she said. “I never feel safe. Never. I experience sexual harassment on a daily basis, and the fear of sexual assault is always a looming thought. I’m bringing this lawsuit to bring about change on behalf of a community that deserves the inherent dignity to simply exist.”
Among the myriad acts of abuse detailed in a 105-page complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Diamond says she was locked in a windowless office by a corrections officer. During this period of unlawful detainment, he allegedly “stroked Ms. Diamond’s buttocks, legs, and thighs” and “demanded Ms. Diamond show her breasts and genitalia.” A second officer allegedly witnessed the misconduct but “did not do anything to assist Ms. Diamond or intervene,” the lawsuit alleges.
Officials with GDC have reportedly done little to prevent successive attacks on Diamond, even despite claims she was raped four times by different assailants over a three-day period. Her cell does not lock, and when she complained, Diamond was told that “some doors work, and others do not,” according to the suit.
Chinyere Ezie, who represents Diamond on behalf of CCR, said in a statement that her client’s experiences are proof that “little has changed since 2015 when it comes to the abuse and neglect of transgender people in GDC custody.”
“Five years after changing its policies in response to our first lawsuit, GDC tragically continues to flout its legal obligations to protect transgender people in its custody,” added SPLC Senior Attorney Beth Littrell in a press release. “The assaults and threats that Ashley continues to face on a daily basis are based on the fact that she is a woman in a men’s prison — it’s intolerable and inexcusable.”
In addition to the physical abuse Diamond has faced, her lawsuit claims that GDC has failed to consistently comply with required standards on gender-affirming care, noting that her “hormone treatment has been discontinued for weeks at a time.” She was also denied blood work to “ensure the adequacy of her hormone levels.”
These claims, while horrific, are extremely common for transgender people housed in lockup facilities in the United States. A 2007 study of California inmates found that 59 percent of transgender women had experienced sexual assault behind bars, and in a February investigative report, NBC News could only find 15 cases out of 4,890 where a trans inmate was housed in accordance with their gender identity, putting them at a high risk for sexual or physical violence.
Meanwhile, Black trans women face the greatest risk of harm. A 2015 report from the National Center for Transgender Equality found that one in two members of this vulnerable population have spent time in a jail or prison at some point in their lives.
In bringing the case, Diamond’s attorneys are lobbying to ensure that GDC extends her the legally required care and protection she needs to prevent repeated instances of abuse. But in a year which has seen a historic level of violence against trans people, both in and out of prison, she adds that her “hope” is also that “the future is brighter for people like me.”
“I hope this lawsuit forever changes the way transgender people in Georgia are treated,” Diamond said in a statement. “This fight is not just my fight, it’s our fight.”
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