LINCOLN, Ill. (WAND) – A transgender inmate who claims corrections officers abused her is now in a women’s prison.
Deon “Strawberry” Hampton, who has identified as female since the age of five, was housed in men’s prisons while serving 10 years for residential burglary – a sentence she started serving in 2015. A complaint filed by her attorneys details accusations of abuse that they say continued as she moved to different prisons.
The PDF document, which is attached to this story, says correctional officers sexually assaulted Hampton more than once and made her have sex with a cellmate as they watched in Pinckneyville. Hampton was in custody there between October 2016 and August 2017.
Pinckneyville officers are accused of threatening to “bury her in segregation” after she reported the alleged abuse, and the complaint says they then filed “false disciplinary charges” to put her in segregation. Hampton was moved to Menard Correctional Center on Aug. 23, 2017, where the complaint claims officers continued to beat her. It says officers told her the abuse was in response to her filing a complaint.
On Jan. 10, 2018, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) moved Hampton to Lawrence Correctional Center. The complaint says more verbal abuse and beatings happened there.
IDOC leaders were named in the lawsuit, and the department confirmed with WAND-TV Thursday that Hampton is now in the Logan Correctional Center - a women's prison.
“Deon Hampton was recently transferred to Logan Correctional Center,” an IDOC spokesperson said. “The Illinois Department of Corrections carefully considered Hampton’s housing placement before making the transfer."
Hampton’s complaint document says an IDOC psychiatrist diagnosed her with gender dysphoria in 2012. She began hormone treatment while behind bars in 2016.
The Logan Correctional Center is the same prison where a federal lawsuit claims sexual misconduct involving employees happened often.
