COLORADO, USA — A class action lawsuit finalized on March 26 makes historic changes to the Colorado prison system.
The settlement in the suit, which was filed in 2019, will improve conditions for transgender women serving time behind bars in the state.
Four years ago, one of those women was Taliyah Murphy. Murphy, a current college student a year away from her bachelor's degree, was released from prison in 2020.
"So I went to prison for attempted murder. It was a domestic situation with a former boyfriend of mine," she said. "I was sentenced to 64 years in prison. I just looked at the judge and said, 'I'll be back to give you this time back.' I said, 'I don't know when, but I'll be back because this isn't where my story ends.'"
Murphy's words would help reduce her sentence to 12 years. She served that time at a number of prisons, including the Buena Vista Correctional Facility. That's where she made a change in her life.
"It was 2014 when I first asked for hormonal replacement therapy," she said. "And it was denied, and I appealed it. I appealed it and I appealed it and eventually they transferred me out of that facility."
Murphy said it took her more than a year to start her gender-affirming care. She said it took two years to legally get her name changed, but most staff still wouldn't use it.
She recalled an incident when she was serving time at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility.
"I won't say the staff member's name, but we were on our way to a transgender support group and she intentionally called us all out and she's like, 'Hi, gentleman!'", Murphy recalled. "It was like somebody punching me in the stomach. Our punishment is to be separated from society. That does not give you the power or authority to further torment us in any way, especially like that. That's just wrong."
Murphy said in 2018 she was approached by Paula Greisen, a civil rights attorney who was digging into the treatment of transgender women within the Colorado prison system.
"To this day I call her my angel," Murphy said.
Greisen began to contact the transgender women who were housed in male correctional facilities. She began to correspond with dozens of the inmates.
"I think when we started making the rounds, my reaction was probably very similar to how most people would react. I would come out of the prisons on a daily basis and cry," Greisen said. "These are women and they’re being housed with men. The stuff that you would think would happen was happening on a horrific scale."
Greisen filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections, calling for changes in the care of transgender women in the Colorado prison system. Greisen said currently there are 200 transgender women in Colorado prison facilities.
"One woman described it as soon as the door of her cell unlocked she would run out and make sure she was visible to one guard so she wouldn’t be caught alone somewhere," she said. "It’s a landmark movement toward treating people humanely, respectfully and in accordance with their true self."
After six years, pages of pain have turned into briefs to be better. The class-action lawsuit reached a settlement with the state that included a $2.1 million payout and a consent decree that would mandate the prison system make changes to its policies when it comes to the care and housing of transgender women.
"It's not a sight I'm sure I thought I would ever see," Greisen said as she stared at the consent decree. "I think it's the most important work I've ever done."
Greisen didn't do it alone. She had a team of local attorneys with her, as well as the Transgender Law Center. Scott Medlock was one of the attorneys on her team who helped create the plan the DOC would have to abide by.
"This is by far the most complicated case," Medlock, an attorney with a history in prison cases, said.
The consent decree creates a list of items the DOC needs to address. That includes the creation of the state's first-ever voluntary transgender unit, at Sterling Correctional Facility. It will house 100 transgender women and will build a pathway to get them into the general population at the women's units.
The decree will also create an integration unit at Denver Women's Correctional Facility. It will have about 40 beds. Transgender women will go there to adjust to living in a women's prison. The goal of the new housing corridors is to create a safe space for transgender women, all while preparing them to join the general population at a women's facility.
The consent decree will also make more gender-affirming care and procedures available.
"This is a landmark consent decree. This is really a huge change in how Colorado operates its prison system, and hopefully Colorado can be a model for the nation," Medlock said. "I don't think at all it's an exaggeration to say that it will be lifesaving."
In a month known for women's history, Murphy and the other class members made some of their own. As she finishes up her bachelor's degree, she does it knowing while she leaves the prison system behind, she leaves it better than how she found it.
"I knew when I was getting out of prison, this was for all the trans women that were coming after me," she said. "Colorado has set a precedent and they’re going to be a catalyst for the rest of the country to make these types of changes inside of prison walls so that trans women have equal rights as everyone else."
Greisen said there have been about a dozen transgender women placed in the women's prison so far. She said the DOC plans to have all the policy changes in place by January.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser shared a statement following the finalization of the consent decree:
"For more than five years, the attorney general’s office has worked with the Colorado Department of Corrections and lawyers for transgender inmates to negotiate a settlement that would provide needed protections, appropriate health care, and compensation for transgender women who alleged that they faced discrimination and violence in the state’s prison system. This is a fair, historic settlement that can be a model for other states to protect incarcerated transgender women from discrimination."
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