From the November-December 2017 issue of News & Letters

I have been traumatized over the last several months in prison segregation. I’m scared to leave my cell to bathe or change clothing. I was sexually humiliated in a series of incidents where prison staff forced me to strip when they didn’t have authorization to do so. This happened after I reported being raped by a fellow prisoner in 2015. Because of how the staff tormented me I am now scared to say his name.

Chicago marcher, January 21, 2017. Photo: Terry Moon for News & Letters.

I know they will retaliate if you help me. But I promise to stay strong. I tried to castrate myself after they started refusing to deliver my mail. They said “you can’t put ‘Samantha,’” and wouldn’t listen when I said that the rules in Wisconsin say I can.

When I filed a grievance, I received a conduct report for “false identification.” None of the sexual harassment or rape I reported was acknowledged in writing or in person by anybody. I’m all alone trying to speak out against this. They’re sexual sadists. They’re perverts.

Please help me. I really would appreciate if you publish what I’ve said. I’m a Transgender person at Waupun Correctional Institution, who has been sexually degraded and humiliated for speaking out about being raped, for being Transsexual, who refused to call herself a male and for being a “problem inmate.” The abuse continues despite my pleas for mercy.

—Samantha Eichman