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Lesbians and masculine looking women segregated in “butch wing” of Virginia women’s prison
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Former Fluvanna Women's Correctional Center inmate, Summer Triolo, gestures during an interview in her home in Virgina Beach, Va., March 23, 2009. While an inmate, Triolo was sent to a unit officers dubbed the "butch wing." (AP/Steve Helber)
According to prisoners and guards at Virginia’s largest women’s prison, inmates who had short hair, loose fitting clothes, or were masculine looking were sent to an area of the facility labeled the “butch wing.”
The segregation was an effort to end relationships and minimize illegal sexual activity at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, which houses about 1,200 inmates. But, corrections officers said straight women were also sent to the wing if they had a masculine appearance.
In letters and interviews, a number of inmates said they felt stigmatized and humiliated when placed in the segregated wing, that many called the “little boys wing,” the “locker room,” or “studs wing.”
Former inmate Summer Triolo, who spent almost six years at Fluvanna said, “I deserved to go for my crime and I did my time there. But my punishment was by the judge to do time in prison away from my family and home. That was my punishment, not all the extra stuff.”
Civil rights advocates argue punishing a prisoner for “looking gay” is unconstitutional. Fluvanna’s warden is claiming that no housing decisions were made based on prisoner sexual orientation or looks because that would be discriminatory. After the Associated Press began investigating claims of segregation, inmates said the practice stopped.
In men’s prisons, segregating gay inmates has been upheld by federal courts as constitutional and is done to protect inmates and maintain order.
According to Helen Trainor, director of the Virginia Institutionalized Person Project, segregating women prison inmates based on appearance violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and freedom of expression.
A former guard and two current guards at Fluvanna said Building 5 manager Timothy Back came up with the idea to segregate masculine looking female inmates. The AP attempted to interview Back, but could not find a working phone number for him, and the prison declined repeated requests to interview him.
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