By Amie Ichikawa
Faith Booher-Smith, a 28-year-old woman and inmate at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW), was viciously attacked on August 7 by a 6’4” male child molester identifying as a transgender woman. When I saw Booher-Smith’s story, I thought to myself, “That could have been me.”
I spent nearly five years in the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, one of the largest women’s prisons in the country, and saw firsthand how critical single-sex spaces are for the safety and dignity of incarcerated women. Having access to that single-sex space after I committed a serious crime was crucial for my rehabilitation, and that of countless women in my position.
But in Washington, and around the country, dangerous policies are allowing men into women’s prisons and risking female inmates’ lives and chances at rehabilitation.
In California, I lived through the fallout of Senate Bill 132, passed in 2020, which allowed male inmates to transfer into women’s prisons without any “gender-affirming” procedures. While I was released prior to that, women I shared cells with started reaching out after my release—desperate calls, letters, emails begging for help because men, some with violent pasts, were placed in their cells, stripping away their sense of safety. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Trans’ Inmate Back In Male Prison Years After Allegedly Raping Female Cellmate)
One case still haunts me: a male inmate, isolated in a men’s prison for assaulting bunkmates, was moved into a women’s cell with seven women. Those women were trapped, their voices ignored.
The attack on Booher-Smith in Washington feels eerily familiar.
Booher-Smith told IW Features that trans-identifying inmate Christopher Williams grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the ground, and punched and kicked her relentlessly in the WCCW day room. She fought back but was no match for his strength. “I was terrified,” she said. “Completely, utterly terrified.”
Shockingly, an officer stood just 10 feet away and did nothing. It was other female inmates who rushed in, pulled Williams off, and shielded Booher-Smith. The system left them to fend for themselves.
Williams isn’t a one-off threat. He has a documented history of stalking, harassment, and sexual assault against women at WCCW. One woman reported being molested in her sleep. He was removed after a lawsuit but was allowed back this summer.
How does a man with this record return to a women’s prison? Washington’s Transgender Inmate Policy claims to screen male transfers for safety, but it failed Booher-Smith. It failed Mozzy Clark-Sanchez, a child rape survivor who endured repeated harassment from Williams. It even failed female officers who admitted to America First Policy Institute that they fear him.
The failures in this case were numerous. Officers couldn’t enter the unit because a booth officer didn’t unlock the doors. A staffer with pepper spray stood by, never using it. After the assault, Booher-Smith—the victim—was handcuffed and paraded past Williams, intensifying her trauma. She’s still battling anxiety and concussion symptoms like dizziness and vomiting, while prison medical staff have largely dismissed her.
Meanwhile, the investigation into Williams drags on, leaving her without justice. She told IW Features, “I have really bad anxiety. I really struggled to be in the day room.”
The rot runs deep. A Muslim inmate pleaded that these policies violated her faith, and a nurse quit because she couldn’t stomach the erosion of women’s safety. Another man at WCCW, locked up for double murder, was caught exploiting a vulnerable woman. These are the predictable results of policies that ignore biology. Women’s prisons were built to address our unique vulnerabilities. When men are placed there, those safeguards vanish. (RELATED: Dem-Appointed Judges Rule Powerlifting Org’s Ban On Men In Women’s Events ‘Discriminatory’)
My time in Chowchilla showed me how vital single-sex spaces are for rehabilitation and survival. Prison is supposed to rehabilitate inmates, not abuse them.
What happened to Booher-Smith and to other inmates in the prison cannot be allowed to happen again. Washington’s Department of Corrections—and indeed, every prison in America—must restore single-sex prisons and end this reckless policy.
We can’t let another woman be brutalized while the system looks the other way.
Amie Ichikawa is an Independent Women ambassador and founder of Woman || Woman. She is closely involved in Independent Women Features’ documentary series, Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons, exposing the fallout of policies that open women’s prisons to male offenders, as told by female inmates, along with insiders and whistleblowers from the correctional world.
