'They look like linebackers with boobs.' Female inmate reveals the horror of being locked up with 'aggressive' trans cellmates

An ex-inmate of a California women's prison has spoken of the terror of being locked up with 'big, burly and aggressive' male-to-female transgender detainees thanks to a recent state law.

Evelyn Valiente has revealed how life changed inside Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 132 into law in 2020.

Dozens of trans women have since been transferred to the sprawling facility in Chowchilla, leading to allegations of rape and harassment.

'They look like linebackers with boobs,' says Valiente, using a pseudonym to safeguard her identity.

'These are big guys. They have the breasts, but they still look like football players.'

Ex-inmate Evelyn Valiente says she's worried about retaliation for speaking out against transgender detainees 

Some trans detainees are 'like linebackers with boobs,' said Valiente. 'These are big guys. They have the breasts, but they still look like football players.'

Many — but not all — trans detainees bring an 'aggressive' and 'threatening demeanor' to the lockup, some 150 miles southeast of San Francisco, she adds.

Valiente served two decades at CCWF for murder and was granted parole in 2022, she says in an interview with the Independent Women's Forum.

She describes one trans inmate who was 'manipulative, calculating, vindictive, and always looking and seeking to do harm to another person.'

Valiente shared a block with the trans detainee, but not the same sleeping area.

'He felt from his perspective that he was victimized,' says Valiente, using male pronouns.

'But in all actuality, he was victimizing others.'

Asking to be moved or complaining against trans detainees achieves little, she adds, and gets written off as 'discrimination.'

Valiente, like most women detainees, is a victim of sexual abuse, she says.

The presence of trans inmates made the women anxious, she adds.

'It's super uncomfortable. Like a constant high alert,' she says.

She described a female inmate and a trans newcomer striking up a relationship in a nearby room.

Valiente says trans detainees bring an 'aggressive' and 'threatening demeanor' to the women's lockup in central California

Female detainees at Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) say life changed after trans inmates were allowed to transfer there

They could regularly be heard yelling, fighting, and kicking doors. The trans detainee became violent.

'That was scary,' Valiente says.

'A lot of us as women, we come from very abusive backgrounds, so it's a lot of walking in that trauma.'

The passage of SB 132 gave rights to trans people but sent women 'backwards,' she says.

'That law gives that community these rights that discount us as women,' she says.

'What about our rights? No one asked us how we felt about this.'

California facilities have 1,983 trans and non-binary detainees among a total prison population of some 96,000.

Some 344 detainees in male prisons have requested transfers to women's lockups.

Of them, 44 were approved and 59 were denied. Others are under review.

Just 15 inmates of women's prisons have requested transfers; three have been approved.

Mary Xjimenez, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) spokeswoman, says trans inmates who 'present a safety and management concern' are not allowed to transfer.

The department has a 'zero-tolerance policy' to sexual assaults and all allegations are properly investigated, she told DailyMail.com.

CCWF's sprawling complex in Chowchilla has been dogged by claims of sexual violence in its cells for years.

California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the transgender prison bill into law in September 2020.

Tremaine Carroll, 51, an athletic 6ft 2ins trans inmate at Chowchilla, is accused of raping two women inmates at the facility   

But women's rights groups warn of rising incidents of rape, unwanted pregnancies and other horrors in what were once women-only cellblocks.

Tremaine Carroll, 51, an athletic 6ft 2ins trans inmate at Chowchilla, is accused of raping two women inmates at the facility in January.

He has since been transferred back to an all-male lockup.

Sharon Byrne, director of Women's Liberation Front, says SB 132 makes it too easy for any male convict seeking access to women or a way out of violence-plagued men's prisons.

To apply, detainees must only profess their identity.

Taking cross-sex hormones or undergoing surgery is not required.

'Any male serving out any sentence for violent assaults, rapes, crimes in a men's prison, sees an open door to easily get into a woman's prison,' says Byrne.

'Who's not going to take advantage of that?'

Meanwhile, prison guards have blown the whistle on what's happening in California's prisons.

Hector Bravo Ferrel lifted the lid on the changes at the high-security men's Diego Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego when SB 132 came into force.

Ferrel, who has since quite the service, says 'predatory' male detainees were 'champing at the bit' to fake sex changes and get locked up with women.

Kim and Khloé Kardashian recently toured the showpiece facility for their new Hulu show.

Detainees and staff at CCWF celebrated a 'day of action' for trans prisoners in January. 

The 39-year-old Army veteran oversaw transfers of biological males to women's lockups and says they acted 'like kids in a candy store.'

'Some of them are in there for sex crimes,' Ferrel says in an interview.

'That's unethical, that's immoral, that's dangerous.'

California's corrections department, however, presents the transfer scheme as a success in a progressive state.

Staff in January marked 'Transgender Prisoner Day of Action' with a cookout at the sprawling Chowchilla facility.

Inmates ate burgers in front of the pink-and-blue trans flag and talked about how to improve the law for 'gender minorities.'

Weeks later, staff posed for selfies with Kim and Khloé Kardashian, as the sisters toured the showpiece facility for their new Hulu show.

The Transgender Law Center, the ACLU and other groups say trans detainees are most often victims of abuse and deserve protection.

Letting them serve their sentences in lockups matching their gender identity makes them safer, advocates say.