A transgender woman serving a life sentence for brutally murdering her own parents has complained about her transfer to a men’s prison.
Amber Kim, 36 — who was convicted in 2008 as Bryan Kim — served about four years in gender-affirming housing at the Washington Corrections Center for Women for fatally stabbing her father, Richard Kim, and bludgeoning and strangling her mother, Terri Kim in December 2006 before withdrawing $1,000 from their account.
But after she was caught having sex with a female inmate in prison, Kim was transferred to the Monroe Correctional Complex, a men’s prison – despite her insistence that the act was consensual. reports the Seattle Times.
She now claims her confinement in a men’s prison is cruel and unusual punishment, according to a request for personal restraint filed with the state Court of Appeals.
“For Ms. Kim, the risk of violence, assault and harassment is not merely speculative,” her lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington wrote in the petition, according to the Huffington post.
They alleged that before being transferred to the women’s facility in 2021, she experienced “two attempted sexual assaults, inappropriate touching by Department of Corrections staff, and persistent sexual and verbal harassment by male inmates.”
Kim also wrote in a statement accompanying the petition that the women’s prison was a “tremendous improvement” over what she experienced in the men’s prison.
Transgender convicted murderer Amber Kim, 36, has filed a petition claiming her transfer to a men’s prison is cruel and unusual punishment
Kim was convicted in 2008 of two counts of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing her father, Richard Kim, and stabbing and strangling her mother, Terri Kim.
She was transferred to the Monroe Correctional Complex, a men’s prison (pictured) after she was caught having sex with a female inmate in a women’s prison
“Without the emotional burden of constant harassment and spending my future avoiding physical violence, I was able to focus on my mental health, plan for the future, and engage in positive programming,” Kim wrote.
She further noted that there were other transgender women in the facility and that the majority of the other inmates treated her “just like any other women.”
But when she was transferred to Monroe, Kim said she was told she would be living in a unit for people convicted of sex crimes, former gang members and a small number of transgender women.
“I knew I wouldn’t be safe,” she wrote.
In protest, Kim began a hunger strike that lasted 17 days — only ending when DOC officials told her she would be denied access to an upcoming procedure if she continued.
“I felt like DOC was trying to force me to choose between safe housing or gender-affirming surgery that would allow me to live my life more fully.”
Instead, Kim has lived in solitary confinement for the past six months.
If she were to be transferred to Monroe’s general population now, when she is further along in her transition, her risk of harassment would increase.
Kim claimed she would live in “constant fear” of “physical abuse, assault” and intimidation if she were placed in the men’s prison.
“If I am ultimately included in the general male population, I will live in constant fear,” Kim wrote in her 27-page statement. ‘I’m afraid of physical violence, sexual violence and constant intimidation.
“I will face the ultimate paradox: my continued physical transition helps address my debilitating gender dysphoria, but the more feminine my appearance becomes, the more unwanted, non-consensual attention I will receive from the men in prison.”
Her lawyers have also argued that a housing investigation, completed just a month after Kim received a violation for having sex with her cellmate, recommended her into the general population at the women’s prison.
But a few weeks later, the team conducted another evaluation and decided Kim should be transferred to Monroe.
She also claimed her treatment at the Washington Corrections Center for Women
According to Washington Department of Corrections policy, trans inmates placed in a gender-affirming facility may be transferred “due to documented, objective safety and security concerns.”
Housing decisions are made based on a case-by-case assessment process based not only on the safety of the transgender person, but also on the safety of the population where they will be housed, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Rachel Ericson told the Seattle Times.
In Kim’s case, the team found: ‘Due to the nature of the culture within US prisons, where incarcerated individuals are unable to come forward with information that could lead to others getting into trouble without fear of reprisal, there are no good practices for determining actual consensual sex.’
However, Kim’s lawyers claim that the recommendation to transfer her was “arbitrary, in bad faith and had no legitimate penological purpose.”
Kim said she now hopes her petition forces (the Department of Corrections) to reconsider how they treat incarcerated people.
“Prison should be limited to the loss of freedom,” she argued. “But prison should not include the loss of the pursuit of happiness.”