Maya Zellkind reads testimony from a formerly incarcerated trans woman

Good afternoon.

My name is Maya Zellkind, and I'm a legal intern with the Civil Rights and Law Reform Unit at Brooklyn Defender Services.

I want to use my time to bring the voices of TGNC and BI people directly affected by DOC's practices into this hearing to show that the conditions that the task force was established to address continue to exist and our work is not done.

The following is an account of someone formerly placed in Rikers who experienced violence and struggled to navigate a men's facility while targeted for her identity.

When I was on Rikers Island, I went through so much because of my gender identity.

I experienced being sexually assaulted by officers and inmates.

I'm a transgender female.

As a transgender female, I wasn't accepted in population with other inmates because they didn't accept anyone in the LGBTQ community.

Corrections officers used to get a kick out of me and other transgender females getting either sexually assaulted or beat up and jumped.

We had no type of protection whatsoever, so me being from the projects in the streets, I had to start to conduct myself in survival mode.

Before that, I requested for a female facility and was denied numerous times because I didn't have long hair, breasts, butt fat, and I wasn't doing sexual favors.

Gang members all messed around on the low, and they provided some type of protection and security.

So I ended up being around them, but then I ended up being labeled as a gang member because of that.

So I started using that as an advantage and ended up putting myself deeper into trouble and not realizing that a lot of transgender people get threatened for their safety and get offered drugs for sex or sexual favors.

I don't do that.

I had to figure out a way.

How am I going to protect myself without getting into fights or trouble?

We get no medical care or medical attention.

Thank you.