Male prisoners have physically or psychologically harmed more than 50 female inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW), multiple organizations report.
Washington’s Transgender Inmate Policy allows prisoners to be housed in facilities consistent with their subjective “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex.
At least three biological men have been housed in WCCW under this dangerous policy, according to research and interviews conducted by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) and the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), 44 women had filed formal complaints against these male prisoners as of March 2025.
Seven more women had either informally complained or kept quiet for fear of retaliation.
Of the formal complaints:
- Eight reported verbal harassment and threats from male inmates.
- Seven reported being forcibly housed with male inmates.
- Two reported sexual assault.
- One reported voyeurism.
- One reported physical violence.
One of the women forced to live with a male inmate claimed the prison punished her for speaking up; she allegedly spent 30 days in solitary confinement.
AFPI has confronted the Washington Department of Corrections over these findings multiple times, including once last month after Christopher Williams, a 6-foot-4 man, brutally attacked a female inmate in WCCW.
The department’s answer remains the same: It only grants inmates’ requests to move to opposite-gender facilities after “lengthy and intense scrutiny [by] a multidisciplinary committee.”
Let’s look at the three prisoners that passed this rigorous approval process to shack up at WCCW.
Bryan “Amber” Kim is incarcerated for murdering his parents. He spent time in WCCW sometime before March 2025, when he was transferred back to a male facility after having “consensual” sex with a female inmate at WCCW.
Prisoners cannot legally consent to sexual activity. Under U.S. law, Kim’s actions constitute rape.
The Washington Court of Appeals denied Kim’s petition to transfer back to WCCW on July 8.
According to a settlement agreement between the Washington Department of Corrections and the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Gonanin, the Department had already paid for two of the offender’s transgender surgeries. His third and final surgery was scheduled for May 2025.
Nathan Gonanin, who goes by “Nonnie Lotusflower,” is incarcerated for strangling a 17-year-old girl to death. He was transferred back to a male facility from WCCW on July 14, 2025.
Prior to his transfer, WCCW had placed Gonanin in solitary confinement. The Washington Department of Corrections had assessed he posed an “unmitigated threat to the safety of other incarcerated individuals’ within WCCW.”
According to FAIR, Gonanin was moved to solitary confinement after sexually assaulting at least one female inmate at WCCW.
Christopher Williams is a convicted sex offender incarcerated for first degree assault. His first request to transfer to WCCW was (rightly) denied in 2019 for his “level of past violence toward women.”
Williams allegedly menaced and sexually assaulted his cellmate, Mozzy Clark, just three months after he transferred to WCCW in late 2021. Last month, he brutally beat a female inmate, reportedly punching and kicking her until other inmates dragged him away.
As of September 2, he remains incarcerated at WCCW.
The formal complaints uncovered by FAIR and AFPI square with Clark’s allegations.
Though she repeatedly reported Williams’ escalating harassment, Clark claims officers warned that filing a complaint against Williams could be considered a hate crime and that the 6-foot-4 man might harm her if she reported him.
Clark’s lawsuit also suggests formal complaints against male prisoners don’t begin to capture the pain and fear female inmates experience when housed with men. Though we know of only one complaint filed for voyeurism, Clark claims Williams watched women shower and use the bathroom so frequently that inmates called him the “shower shark.”
In its letter addressing Williams’ most recent assault, AFPI castigated WCCW and the Washington Department of Corrections for allowing men to remain incarcerated at WCCW while women were put in danger.
[Washington’s Transgender Inmate Policy] recklessly and needlessly exposes female inmates to significant danger. While you have been alerted to those dangers on many occasions, this recent assault highlights your abject failure to protect the safety of female inmates.
It concludes:
Not only is this policy discriminatory, it continues to subject female inmates to a disturbing level of actual and imminent harm.
The Daily Citizen heartily agrees. Incarcerated women have the Constitutional right to safety and privacy. Washington state has a duty to uphold it.
Additional Articles and Resources
Violent Male Offender Beats Up Female Inmate in Women’s Prison
A Man Conned His Way Into A Women’s Prison. Now, Officials Can’t Make Him Leave
Taxpayers Will Fund Violent Inmate’s Transgender Surgery, Judge Rules
Activist Group WPATH Influences Judgement in Case of Prisoner Receiving Trans Surgery
Suicidal or Stable? WPATH Activist’s Contradictory Evaluation Secures Felon Transgender Surgery
Judge up for Promotion Moved Serial Rapist and Pedophile into Female Prison
New Docuseries Paints Chilling Picture of Women Forced to Live with Men in Prison
Lawsuit Filed Against California for Allowing Men Into Women’s Prisons
‘Transgender Means Many Different Things’ — And Nothing
Rape Victims Must Refer to Male Rapist in Court with ‘She/Her’ Pronouns
