By Laurel Duggan
A transgender inmate was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a woman while incarcerated in the women’s section of the Rikers Island jail, according to the New York Post.
Ramel Blount, who also goes by Diamond Blount, approached a 33-year-old woman exiting the shower, held her down by her neck and raped her Feb. 8, 2021, investigators said, according to the NYP. Blount pled guilty to attempted rape April 7 and must register as a sex offender and undergo eight years of post-release supervision after the end of the seven-year sentence.
“Sexual violence against anyone is unacceptable,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said, according to the NYP.
New York City allows transgender inmates to choose where they are held based on gender identity rather than biological sex, meaning that a male who identifies as a woman can be held in a women’s prison. It remains unclear whether Blount will serve time in New York City. (RELATED: Hospital Admits Trans Patient May Have Raped Woman After Denying Any Men Were There, UK Parliament Member Says)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the state’s Department of Correctional Services and Supervision to implement a similar policy in January, but the policy needs to be passed by state lawmakers before it can go into effect.
Trans people are often held in jail and prison facilities that are not consistent with their gender, even though courts have held that the practice is discriminatory. https://t.co/W29q1zPiuo
— ACLU (@ACLU) September 8, 2019
The state’s prison system considers transgender inmates’ requests to be transferred to women’s prisons on an individual basis and does not make these decisions based solely on external genital anatomy, according to a 2019 directive.
New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
