By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-20 00:26:47 | Updated at 2024-12-29 06:38:38
1 week ago
A transgender woman serving a life sentence for brutally killing her own parents has bemoaned her transfer to a men's prison.
Amber Kim, 36 - who was convicted in 2008 as Bryan Kim - served about four years in gender-affirming housing at the Washington Corrections Center for Women for fatally stabbing her father, Richard Kim, and bludgeoning and strangling her mother, Terri Kim in December 2006 before taking $1,000 from their account.
But after she was caught having sex with a female inmate at the prison, Kim was transferred to the Monroe Correctional Complex, a men's prison - despite her insistence that the act was consensual, the Seattle Times reports.
She now claims that her incarceration in a men's prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, according to a personal restraint petition filed in the state Court of Appeals.
'For Ms. Kim, the risk of violence, sexual assault and harassment is not merely speculative,' her attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington wrote in the petition, according to the Huffington Post.
They claimed that before she was transferred to the women's facility in 2021, she experienced 'two attempted sexual assaults, inappropriate touching by [Department of Corrections] employees and ongoing sexual and verbal harassment by male inmates.'
Kim also wrote in a declaration attached to the petition that the women's prison was a 'massive improvement' over what she had experienced at the men's facility.
Transgender convicted murderer Amber Kim, 36, has filed a petition claiming her transfer to a men's prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment
Kim was convicted in 2008 of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder for fatally stabbing her father, Richard Kim, and bludgeoning and strangling her mother, Terri Kim
She was transferred to the Monroe Correctional Complex, a men's prison, (pictured) after she was caught having sex with a female inmate at a women's prison
'Without the emotional burden of facing constant harassment and spending my future avoiding physical violence, I was able to focus on my mental health, plan for the future and engage with positive programming,' Kim wrote.
She went on to note that there were other transgender women at the facility and the majority of other inmates treated her 'like any other women.'
But when she was moved to Monroe, Kim said she learned she was going to be living in a unit for people convicted of sex offenses, former gang members and a small number of transgender women.
'I knew I would not be safe,' she wrote.
In protest, Kim began a hunger strike that lasted for 17 days - and only ended when DOC officials told her she would be denied access to an upcoming procedure if she were to continue.
'I felt that DOC was trying to force me to choose between safe housing or a gender-affirming surgery that would allow me to live my life more fully.'
Instead, Kim has been living in solitary confinement for the past six months.
If she were to be transferred to general population at Monroe now that she is further along in her transition would increase her risk of harassment.
Kim claimed she would live in 'constant fear' of 'physical assault, sexual assault' and harassment if she were to be put in general population at the men's prison
'If I am eventually placed in men's general population, I will live in constant fear,' Kim wrote in her 27-page declaration. 'I am afraid of physical assault, sexual assault and the constant harassment.
'I will face the ultimate paradox: my continued physical transition helps address my debilitating gender dysphoria, but the more female-presenting I become in appearance, the more unwanted, nonconsensual attention I will receive from the men in prison.'
Her attorneys have also argued that a housing review completed just one month after Kim received an infraction for having sex with her cellmate recommended she remain in the women's prison in general population.
But a few weeks later, the team conducted another review and decided Kim should be transferred to Monroe.
She also claimed her treatment at the Washington Corrections Center for Women
Under the Washington Department of Corrections policy, trans inmates placed in a gender-affirming facility may be transferred 'due to documented, objective safety and security concerns.'
Housing decisions are made on a case-by-case basis review process based not only on the safety of the transgender individual but also the safety of the population where they will be housed, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Rachel Ericson told the Seattle Times.
In Kim's case, the team ruled: 'Due to the nature of the culture inside America's prisons, where incarcerated individuals are not able to come forward with information that may lead to others getting in trouble without fear of reprisal, there is no sound practices for determining actual consensual sex.'
Kim's attorneys, though, argue that the recommendation to transfer her was 'arbitrary, in bad faith and lacking a legitimate penological purpose.'
Kim said she now hopes her petition 'forces [the Department of Corrections] to reconsider how they treat incarcerated people.
'Prison is supposed to be limited to a loss of liberty,' she argued. 'But prison is not supposed to include the loss of the pursuit of happiness.'
