Protesters speak out against ‘barbaric’ policy allowing men in Shakopee women’s prison

Jayme Ali, a former inmate and one of the organizers of the protest, said she won't stop until the state removes "these predatory men out of Shakopee women's prison."

By
Anthony Gockowski
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Shakopee
Protesters gathered outside Minnesota’s only women’s prison Sunday afternoon. (Alpha News)

Protesters gathered outside Minnesota’s only women’s prison Sunday afternoon to voice their “grave concerns for the women incarcerated at MCF-Shakopee today.”

Their message was clear: “men are not, and never can be, women,” said Kerri Bruss, one of the co-organizers of the demonstration.

“There are areas of life where the physical and biological differences between the two sexes must be recognized and respected to assure the safety, privacy, and dignity of women and girls, with sex-segregated prisons topping that list,” she said.

Since 2023, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) has allowed men who claim to be women to be housed at Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF)-Shakopee under a state policy titled “Management and Placement of Incarcerated People Who Are Transgender, Gender Diverse, Intersex, or Nonbinary.”

“Forcing incarcerated women, who typically are nonviolent offenders, to share intimate spaces with these violent, predatory men is an act of cruelty that amounts to state-sanctioned torture and any rape that occurs under these circumstances must be understood as state-sanctioned,” added Bruss, a volunteer with Women’s Declaration International USA.

Sunday’s protest featured a row of mugshots of some of the male criminals who have been allowed to live at MCF-Shakopee, including men convicted of assault, homicide, and criminal sexual conduct involving minors.

Shakopee
Men convicted of assault, homicide, and criminal sexual conduct involving minors have been housed at MCF-Shakopee. (Alpha News)

Over the last year, Alpha News has interviewed DOC employees and inmates who have voiced their disgust with the situation, including Jayme Ali, who was released from MCF-Shakopee two months ago.

She has used her freedom to publicly speak out about “the trauma inflicted upon her by the state” and organized an initial protest at MCF-Shakopee last month.

“I made a pact with 500-plus fellow sisters of mine that are currently behind all my supporters, all their supporters, all these voices — I promised them the whole 10, traumatic, living-nightmare months that I spent behind them walls with them, I promised them that as soon as I got out, after I literally threw up while sobbing, I was going to go get a lawyer and I was going to fight for them,” Ali said Sunday.

“This fight isn’t over. This fight is just beginning,” she continued. “I will not stop until you immediately remove these predatory men out of Shakopee women’s prison.”

Organizers spent a portion of Sunday’s protest reading from letters written by women incarcerated in MCF-Shakopee.

“This message is directed at Gov. Tim Walz. After allowing men in our safe spaces where we are sent for rehabilitation, you have created an unsafe environment for us. In fact, you created more trauma, more loss of security and our right to be simply safe,” said one of the letters.

Rebecca Delahunt, director of public policy for the Minnesota Family Council, explained how women and girls deserve protection in all private spaces, but the issue of prisons is “fundamentally different.” 

“A woman can boycott a sports team if there’s a male taking her spot. A woman can hopefully leave a restroom facility if there’s a male inside. Women here cannot leave this facility,” she said. “This is barbaric injustice.”

Several speakers urged state lawmakers to pass HF 435, which would direct the commissioner of corrections to house only biological female inmates at MCF-Shakopee. One of the authors of the bill, Rep. Paul Novotny, attended Sunday’s protest.

“We call on the state of Minnesota to stop disregarding international humanitarian guidelines, and the sex-based protections that women have campaigned and died for, in service of a trendy ideology that recklessly neglects the rights, privacy and safety of women and girls,” said Bruss.

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Anthony Gockowski
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Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.

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