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Trans detainee 'lives in fear' of reprisals now he's back in an all-male lockup battling rape claims
A transgender detainee who allegedly raped two women inmates at a female prison 'lives in fear' now he's been sent back to an all-male lockup, his attorney says.
Tremaine Carroll, 51, is worried about 'retaliation' in Kern Valley State Prison, the notoriously violent all-male facility in central California he's been moved to, says lawyer Joe Goethals.
Carroll was relocated after two women accused him of raping them in January at Central California Women's Facility (CCWF), where Carroll had been allowed to serve his time as a trans woman.
California's prisons have been roiled by chaos and confusion since 2021, when Senate Bill 132 allowed trans and non-binary biological males to ask to serve their sentences in women's prisons.
'She's very uncomfortable' at Kern Valley, Goethals told DailyMail.com.
Trans detainee Tremaine Carroll, 51, allegedly raped two women in a women's prison before being sent back to an all-men lockup.
'Prisons can be a dangerous place for people who identify in the trans community, so she has serious concerns, and she lives in fear of further retaliation.'
Carroll in August 2021 became one of California's first biological males to transfer to a women's prison, after persuading officials he was not a danger to CCWF's 2,000 female inmates.
He became a poster child for California's transfer scheme, even defending it in a civil court case.
That changed in January, as two CCWF inmates came forward with allegations that Carroll had overpowered and raped them.
One of them, a small woman in her thirties, says Carroll forcibly penetrated her in the shower of the eight-bedroom dormitory they shared.
She was left traumatized by the attack, and relives the ordeal each time she takes a shower, when her heart pounds in her chest, she says.
The women have not been identified.
Carroll has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape and one count of dissuading a witness from testifying.
Goethals says Carroll 'never had any non-consensual sexual relations of any kind,' at CCWF.
Trans detainees are not welcome at CCWF and face discrimination from inmates and guards, he added.
Trans detainee Tremaine Carroll is back in an all-men facility, the maximum security Kern Valley State Prison.
Kern Valley State Prison is plagued by violence, including a stabbing death in a recreational yard in April.
The women's allegations cannot be trusted, says Goethals.
They contain 'too many coincidences' and were recorded by guards with 'control and influence over' the alleged victims, he said.
Lawyer Joe Goethals says Carroll is 'not a danger.'
'We will show that my client is not a danger to anybody.'
Carroll identifies as a woman with 'she/her' pronouns, but prosecutors and others refer to him as a man.
He's due back at Madera Superior Court for a preliminary hearing on July 8.
He's 6ft 2in, 200 lbs, and presents as male, with facial hair, and has not undergone sex-change treatments.
The lawyer says Carroll is struggling at Kern Valley, a maximum security lockup for some 2,500 men that's plagued by violence, including a stabbing death in a recreational yard in April.
He's serving 25-years-to-life under California's three strikes laws for repeat offenders.
One of his early convictions — for two counts of kidnapping — involved Carroll and other men breaking into an apartment occupied by two women.
The victims were sexually assaulted and forced into 'oral copulation,' court papers show.
Despite the incident, a committee of prison staff, experts, and a warden approved Carroll's transfer request to a women's lockup.
California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the transgender prison bill into law in September 2020.
Female detainees at Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) say life changed after trans inmates were allowed to transfer there.
He was moved to CCWF, outside Chowchilla in central California, in August 2021.
There, Carroll repeatedly complained to staff about his treatment, harassment from other detainees, and some 30 cases of being sexually assaulted.
California state 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.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says it vets requests carefully and only approves them when it's 'safe to do so.'
The department said it could not comment on Carroll's case.
Sally Moreno, the District Attorney for Madera County, said the rape allegations cast doubt on the decision to greenlight Carroll's transfer.
Asked if the department should review its transfer policy, the DA said: 'I certainly hope so.'
The Transgender Law Center, the ACLU and other groups say trans detainees are most often victims of abuse and deserve protection.
CCWF's sprawling complex in Chowchilla has been dogged by claims of sexual violence in its cells for years.
Detainees and staff at CCWF celebrated a 'day of action' for trans prisoners in January.
Letting them serve their sentences in lockups matching their gender identity makes them safer, advocates say.
But women's rights groups warn of rising incidents of rape and other horrors in what were once women-only cellblocks.
Sharon Byrne, director of the 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?'
Still, lawyer Goethals says campaigners and some politicians use Carroll as a political football to show that trans male-to-female detainees are 'sexual predators.'
'They have clung to this case as proof that they were right all along,' he said.
'But as we explore that, it's going to fall apart. I don't think that their allegations against Tremaine Carroll are going to vindicate their position.'