WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, IW Features, a storytelling platform of Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), announced the release of Cathleen Quinn’s story in the ninth episode of its exclusive docu-series, Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons. In this episode, Cathleen Quinn shares her gutwrenching story as a current inmate who lost her parole, and ultimately left behind bars for five more years after objecting to a California law allowing male offenders to gain access and be housed in women’s prisons.
Quinn endured an uncomfortable invasion of her privacy on two occasions by a male inmate identifying as a transgender woman. In response, she filed a grievance against SB 132 – the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act. This California law passed in 2020 allows fully intact men to be housed in female-only prisons by simply declaring a non-male gender.
Applying the situational skills taught by prison instructors and self-help groups when in alarming or dangerous circumstances, Cathleen Quinn filed a report on the male who carried out the inappropriate bathroom behavior. After filing this grievance, Quinn was hit with a wrongful verdict of “institutional misconduct,” ultimately causing her to lose her chance to return home. She was just three weeks away from parole when the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation took away her parole date, leaving her behind bars for another five years.
Click HERE to watch Cathleen’s story.
In IWF’s documentary, Cathleen Quinn says, in part:
“We are punished for speaking up for ourselves…I filed [that] grievance because I believe that SB 132 is bad policy. I believe that preoperative men should not be housed with women here with their genitalia still attached. I disagree with it.”
Quinn believes that if she had just kept quiet about a male being housed in her facility, she more than likely would have gotten out;
“As far as the state is concerned, I’m not eligible to go back to parole until 2028. I had worked 17 years for the record that I had at this point. I had just been told I could go home after 17 years, 18 years. And so I was devastated. I was three weeks from paroling when they took away my date.”
After being told to stay quiet and keep her head down, Quinn decided to join the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) lawsuit against California’s SB 132 and speak out about the retribution she believes she faced.
Kelsey Bolar, IW Features Director, will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee today to tell the stories of female inmates, like Cathleen Quinn, in addition to correctional officers and whistleblowers in the prison system, and the harmful fallout of policies that allow male inmates—including convicted sex offenders—to declare themselves “women” and be housed in female prisons.
About Cathleen Quinn’s story, Bolar stated: “This is a horrific story of retribution for speaking out. While IW Features is working hard to expose the devastating fallout of policies that allow intact males to reside in women’s prisons, we don’t know anything close to the full scope of what’s happened because of the punishment we’ve documented in this case. For some of these women, speaking out about their experiences being forced to live with male inmates is a matter of freedom or more time behind bars. It is an injustice that Cathleen was faced with this choice, but we thank her for her courage in telling the truth, and for being a voice for so many others who are suffering as a result of these anti-women policies.”
IW Features Storytelling Manager and co-producer of the series, Andrea Mew, said, “Stripped of her freedom for calling out discriminatory policies, Cathleen Quinn’s story isn’t just tough to swallow—it’s a rallying cry to right this wrong. This isn’t just about one woman behind bars—it’s about an entire woke and cowardly system that punishes women fighting for their dignity, safety, and opportunity to rehabilitate. Cathleen Quinn fought back, and now we need to stand with her.”
Amie Ichikawa, IWF ambassador and former inmate at Central California Women’s Facility, said, “I have known Cathleen since I got to prison in 2009. I am devastated that she lost so much because of the gender self-ID law and the silencing and retaliation that anyone who speaks against it is subjected to. Despite all of this, she still stands firm in her belief that women deserve single-sex spaces and is one of my greatest sources of encouragement.”
BACKGROUND:
As more states allow men who identify as women into women’s prisons, few are aware of the harmful fallout. Women with histories of trauma and domestic abuse are forced to share their most private and intimate spaces with intact males—many of whom are violent, sexual predators serving time for heinous crimes.
Allowing male offenders to reside in women’s prisons is dangerous and unfair. Put simply, it’s cruel and unusual punishment. These stories stand as a testament to why biological sex matters, especially in institutional settings. Incarcerated women need and deserve female-only spaces. Anything less is a violation of their most basic human rights.
The eradication of single-sex prisons is harming female inmates.
In this documentary mini-series, IWF brings voices to light who detail the untold, gruesome story about what’s been happening to female inmates behind closed doors. As more and more prison systems allow males to declare themselves “women” and opt to be housed in facilities meant for females, the voices of those most affected deserve to be heard.
Watch the Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons trailer HERE. Each episode of this ongoing short documentary series produced by IWF, varying from 5 to 10 minutes in length, will be released individually over the coming weeks, with episodes available to the public for free on YouTube.
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