ZitatA transgender woman sent to Logan Correctional Center from a men’s prison has faced rape accusations and remains at the women’s prison in Lincoln after the governor’s office reportedly overruled a move by corrections officials to return her to a men’s facility.
Logan inmates have reported being raped by Janiah Monroe, known as Andre Patterson by the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to court documents. In a federal lawsuit aimed at forcing corrections officials to adequately treat gender dysphoria and improve care for transgender inmates, Dr. William Puga, head of psychiatry for the Department of Corrections, last year testified that Monroe wasn’t welcomed by other inmates when she was moved to Logan last spring.
“Dr. Puga received information that Monroe threatened staff and other inmates,” U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Rosenstengel wrote in a December injunction ordering the Department of Corrections to provide hormones to transgender inmates and stop making housing assignments based on genitalia or physical appearance. “Women at the facility filed complaints against Monroe under the Prison Rape Elimination Act; some were false but many were legitimate.” Puga also testified that Monroe stopped taking hormones after arriving at Logan
A sexual misconduct charge against Monroe has been upheld. Alan Mills, her attorney, says it was a case of consensual sex. Other sexual assault allegations, he says, weren’t proven.