"I immediately cut all my hair off, kept my head bald ... I grew a mustache and a goatee, and tried to adopt the hardest walk I could on the yard," said Patience, imprisoned for first-degree murder and other crimes. "I was terrified of it happening again, and I was not going to be out for somebody else to do it."

Still, Patience said, she was raped again, about 18 months later at Mule Creek State Prison. (KQED could not verify most of the alleged attacks reported by Patience and the other prisoners in this story; CDCR said it investigates allegations, but federal law prevents it from sharing details about specific cases.)

David Bella Birrell, imprisoned for first-degree murder, also said she’d been sexually assaulted in prison. "They had a motto back in those days: It was either fight or fuck."

‘Life-Saving Legislation’

In recent years, a flurry of laws and lawsuits, many from prisoners like Quine, have forced systemic changes in the way penal systems in some states treat transgender prisoners. In Illinois, North Carolina and Massachusetts, transgender inmates have won in court the right to transfer to women’s prisons.

In recent months, transgender prisoners in Colorado brought a class action against state prison officials over a lack of safe housing; and three transgender inmates in Texas filed a lawsuit seeking to legally change their names.

In California, a law allowing prisoners to change their gender and name took effect in late 2018. SB 132, the California bill that would let transgender inmates choose, with some exceptions, whether to be imprisoned in a men’s or women’s facility, is similar to measures enacted in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

"Transgender inmates are some of the most marginalized members of society," said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, SB 132’s sponsor. "They need more support. The housing aspect is one piece of the puzzle. And it's a really significant one."

Passage of Wiener’s bill would be "lifesaving," said Bamby Salcedo, a Los Angeles-based transgender activist who spent 14 years in California jails and prisons. Salcedo said the measure would allow transgender inmates to do their time “away from harassment and violence."

The bill passed the state Senate last year, but did not get a floor vote in the Assembly. Wiener, who put the measure on hold until this year to discuss the issue with prisoners, believes it will pass.

Federal Standards Not Met

Wiener’s bill would also bring California in line with federal standards laid out in the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA. These regulations, which took effect in August 2012, recognize transgender inmates as a vulnerable population and stipulate that transgender housing assignments must ensure prisoners’ health and safety. Audits for each facility must be conducted every three years.

In 2017, a federal audit found that CDCR’s policy of housing transgender inmates based solely on their biological sex ran afoul of PREA guidelines and that the department didn’t take into account the prisoners’ own views about their safety.

In response, CDCR said, it implemented a screening tool used to assess risk of victimization. The agency also said its current housing policy requires every inmate receive a case-by-case review of where they are imprisoned, with no restriction on living in a men’s or women’s facility based solely on anatomy.

"We recognize that when we're dealing with our transgender men and women, that our staff need much more guidance when they're looking at what appropriate housing looks like," said Amy Miller, associate director of CDCR’s Female Offender Programs and Services, adult division.

Still, CDCR couldn’t point to any transgender prisoners, besides the few who had undergone gender-affirmation surgery, who had been allowed to switch facilities. The department said it doesn’t track that information.

Harper Jean Tobin, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, said while some states have improved their rules on transgender housing, frequently the policies "only exist on paper."

"Today, contrary to the federal PREA rules, most transgender prisoners continue to be housed automatically with the sex they were assigned at birth, which is often dangerous for them," Tobin said.

‘You Never Feel Safe’

At CMF, transgender women had mixed reactions to the idea of changing living facilities.

Birrell, 67, called Wiener’s housing bill "insanity" and worried about potential conflicts with the existing female prisoner population. She already likes the community resulting from CDCR’s present system of transgender hubs — 14 prisons that offer special medical and mental health care.

But inmate Ava Fey said she would likely "run" to a women’s prison for reasons of safety. Living with women would also offer something that’s eluded her for decades: women whom she could emulate.

"I've been hiding so long — the mannerisms — I've kind of tucked them in and locked it away," said Fey, who was convicted of first-degree murder.

Yekaterina Wesa Patience, 44, said she’d “love” to transfer to a women’s prison as well: "I think that would eliminate a lot of the problems of being sexually assaulted or being raped, pressured."

"You just never feel safe here," she said. "You never feel like you can let your guard down."

Other women, many who live on their own in single cells, said they were fine staying at CMF. Jazzie Paradize Scott, 47, who said she lives in a dorm with 150 men and a few other transgender women, sees the benefits of moving to a women’s prison, but views her current housing choice as a form of activism.

"I want them to be able to see me for who I [am]," she said. "I thought it would be a good idea for me to come out and mingle — not just for the trans women and to show that we can conquer even in the dorm living situation — but just to be able to exist with the males in CMF."

Transgender men at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla had a different take.