opinion

Arrested while transgender: Sex of inmate tests jailers

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the misinformation Meagan Taylor told police when she was arrested.

Since Monday, Offender No. 995200 has been confined to cell M10 in the medical unit of Polk County Jail as officials have tried to figure out what to do with her. That’s not because she’s ill or violent or charged with some big crime; she is none of those things. It’s because she has breasts and a penis.

Her gender non-conformity is also what prompted someone to call police on her. In the same week that Caitlyn Jenner was honored in Los Angeles with a Courage Award for being open about her gender transformation, Meagan Taylor was jailed after attracting unwanted attention for hers.

Taylor isn’t her legal name but her chosen one. She’s 22, from Illinois, works in a beauty salon and goes to cosmetology school. She has a mane of long black hair cascading down her back, topped by a layer of bright red, and long, manicured nails. She takes hormones and plans to have gender reassignment surgery. She was visiting Des Moines with a friend who is also transgender, and they were staying at a hotel in West Des Moines where Taylor noticed the staff “acting really funny” around them. Then police showed up at their hotel room.

The West Des Moines Police report said they were notified about “two males dressed as females who checked into the Drury Inn,” and that “staff was worried about possible prostitution activity.” So an officer went to their hotel room, and though no prostitution was noted, Taylor gave a fake name and told them she was from Ohio, when she was actually from Illinois. The officer also found prescription drugs he identified as spironolactone hydrochloride (they’re listed as diuretics) in an unmarked bottle in her purse. Taylor says they’re part of her hormone treatments, but she was charged with possession of prescription drugs without a prescription.

She said she gave a made-up name and state, but it’s unclear why that led to a charge of “malicious prosecution,” an aggravated misdemeanor. Then the officer ran a check and found Taylor had an outstanding probation violation from Illinois, related to a 2010 conviction for credit card fraud. She says she did her time for that — she was 17 — but still owes $500 in fines.

Transgender people, and especially those of color, are often profiled and accused of doing illegal sex work when they aren’t, says Harper Jean Tobin, policy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C. And as President Barack Obama noted this week, unnecessary imprisonment for minor violations, including parole ones, have helped drive the U.S. incarceration rate to the world’s highest.

“It seemed like they were trying to find something to charge me with,” Taylor said in a jail interview Thursday. “I lied about my name (but) I was not doing any illegal activity. The lady called police because I was transgender and was with a transgender friend.”

Taylor’s bond was set at $2,000. She said if she were from Polk County, she could have paid 10 percent and been released. But being from out of state, she would need someone local to co-sign, and she doesn’t even have a lawyer.

Polk County Sheriff Bill McCarthy contacted me about Taylor after jail officials spent time figuring out the right protocols for treating a transgender inmate. The jail’s chief of detention, Tim Krum, said Taylor isn’t the first transgender inmate they’ve had, but most bond out within a day. Taylor could be there for months. Her next court date is Aug. 25.

Iowa law and administrative rules require housing male and female inmates separately. But Krum and McCarthy said they wouldn’t put her in a unit with men for fear she’d be assaulted. Sexual assaults against transgender detainees are high everywhere. They also didn’t feel comfortable housing her with women, so they put her in the medical unit. Taylor isn’t happy being alone there, describing herself as “a city girl” who likes to have fun. “It’s not fair,” she said. “Everyone else can be in a group but we can’t.”

She said she’s no threat to women; Tobin says transgender women typically aren’t. Federal guidelines under the Prison Rape Elimination Act take no position on which sex transgender inmates should be housed with, but oppose long-term isolation and recommend decisions be based on the individual.

The DOJ also recommends letting transgender people choose the sex of the officers they’ll be patted down by. McCarthy and Krum decided the best approach for Taylor’s comfort and for corrections officers was a female officer doing the top part and a male doing the bottom. Officials also planned Thursday to move Taylor to a larger single cell with a TV and hospital bed.

These are evolving situations, and there may not be perfect solutions until states revise their laws and policies. But at least jail officials are approaching them thoughtfully and open-mindedly. There is, however, no good reason for a 22-year-old nonviolent person like Taylor to be locked up indefinitely. Maybe the real offense is a private business calling police on paying guests because they didn’t conform to gender stereotypes.