Transgender inmates at Montgomery County Prison are afforded protection and kept out of the general prison population for their own safety, according to a prison official. But even if a biological man identifies as a woman, she is still housed with male inmates.

A 40-year-old defendant accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death in a Norristown apartment Aug. 13, was born Tyrone Crawley, but considers herself Asia Santana, a woman. Currently, Santana is being held in the maximum security section of the county lock-up.

“It’s not something we deal with that often,” said Deputy Warden Dennis J. Molyneaux. “A couple of times a year.”

But a transgender prisoner’s appearance is one criteria for segregating them at the Eagleville facility to avoid a possible assault. In the prison vernacular it’s called “administrative segregation/protection.”

“You wouldn’t want a male resembling a female in the male section (of the general population),” he said.

As with all inmates entering the county prison, Santana underwent a medical screening before being assigned a cell. And though the defendant is referred to by her brother as “she,” in the lock-up Santana’s sex is considered male.

“It’s exclusively based on a person’s genitalia,” he said

Source – The Times Herald