The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has filed a lawsuit against the Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC) and its head, Tim Lang, over the state’s policy of housing self-described trans-identified men alongside females inside prisons. They allege that this has led to cases of violence and sexual abuse at the hands of these male inmates.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Fair for All, Inc. and Washington Corrections Center for Women inmate Faith Booher Smith. The lawsuit alleges that Booher-Smith was “violently attacked by a male inmate named Christopher Williams” on August 7, 2025 at the prison.

“For apparently no reason known to Ms. Booher-Smith, Williams approached her silently from behind and struck her on the side of her face with his fist, then grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground before kicking her repeatedly with such force that she sustained visible injuries, including, facial bruising, a laceration in her mouth, and swelling to her jaw and eye.”

Williams stands at six foot four, and is a “biologically intact” male as well as a convicted child sex offender, the lawsuit notes. It alleges that WDOC “has long been aware of the threat Williams and other male inmates pose to females at WCCW,” saying that Williams has a history of “violent, predatory behavior towards other female inmates” that has led to multiple lawsuits from female inmates against the WDOC.

One such inmate, Mozzy Clark, had filed two lawsuits against the WDOC in December of 2024, alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by Williams for months while she was forced to share a prison cell with him.

AFPI said that Williams had been transferred to the women’s prison despite the recommendation against such a move by Eric Jackson, Superintendent of the male-only Monroe Correctional Complex where Williams had previously been incarcerated. Jackson advised that Williams should not be transferred due to his “serious infraction history and the most recent conviction where Williams assaulted and inflicted serious life-threatening injuries to a female victim.” 

The lawsuit stated that despite “these repeated acts of violence against female inmates, WDOC continues to house male inmates at WCCW out of a confoundingly religious adherence to the Transgender Inmate Policy. The result is an environment of threats, violence, and chaos in a State-maintained penitentiary established to house and rehabilitate female prisoners.”

The WDOC’s Transgender Inmate Policy stated, “At any time, an individual may voluntarily submit DOC 02-420 Preferences Request to their case manager designating their preferred name, pronoun(s), gender, to conduct searches/urinalysis, and gender identity, and to request genderaffirming state-issued garments and/or placement in genderaffirming housing.”

A form required to be filled out by the requesting inmate asks whether his placement in the women’s prison would pose a “potential risk” to female inmates. “But at the same time, WDOC has no form or procedure to elicit the same information from the female inmates who would have to share prison housing with the requesting male. Additionally, there is no similar policy or form for female inmates to request to be housed only with other females,” the lawsuit stated.

AFPI stated that “nothing in the Policy even prohibits a male who is sexually attracted to females—let alone a male convicted of raping females— from ultimately sharing an unsupervised cell with a female inmate, so long as he claims to “identify” as a woman.”

They alleged that a “heterosexual male inmate may obtain transfer to a facility meant for females by self-identifying as a woman by simply checking a box on a form without any investigation by WDOC or diligence into the genuineness of that inmate’s claimed gender identity. Because there is no objective metric to evaluate a person’s self-declared “gender identity,” WDOC staff must grant transfer requests based purely on the inmate’s stated responses, however ingenuine.”

The lawsuit stated that placing men in women ’s prisons not only poses a risk to the female inmates, but to the staff as well. “Officers at female prisons—many of whom are female, themselves—are typically trained for a lower-risk population. With male inmates in the mix, they must suddenly manage inmates whose physical capacities demand greater control measures, which can exceed the capabilities of on duty corrections officers.”

In the case of Booher-Smith, “the only guard present in the room, a female, was dwarfed by the six-foot-five Williams. The female corrections officer froze, screaming in fear for her safety, while Booher-Smith was struck repeatedly.” The lawsuit claims that the state’s policy violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

Chief Legal Affairs Officer at AFPI Leigh Ann O’Neill said in a statement, “A women’s prison is supposed to protect women. Washington’s policy turned that basic duty on its head. When the state knowingly forces women to live with men in intimate correctional settings — even after assaults, abuse allegations, and repeated warnings — it is violating the women’s constitutional rights.”