Virginia prisons, which hold inmates for longer terms, keep the sexes apart in separate facilities. When Hartlove was transferred to the Virginia Department of Corrections, she went directly to FCCW on Dec. 1, 1999.

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In the years since then, she said she has not had any real problems as a transgender woman with the staff or other inmates at FCCW, the state’s largest female prison. In a way, she said, it has been easier inside.

“It’s outside you find the people that want to judge you,” she said.

Other offenders at the prison ask her about her background, but she said she generally deflects the questions, preferring to keep things to herself.

“I tell them we all come from different walks of life and we have to join together to help each other,” she said.

She said the prison was a better place when she first arrived. Two big issues there now are drugs — the addiction treatment drug Suboxone, primarily — and not enough activities for the inmates. She said she spends much of her time reading.

She has had two surgeries, one for a back problem and the other for a thyroid issue, since she has been at FCCW.