By Adam Kemp
The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma City transgender woman claims she was ridiculed by the Oklahoma County jail staff and verbally assaulted and “outed” by inmates after she was arrested for speeding with a suspended license and no insurance earlier this month.
Sasha Ingram, 25, said when she arrived at the Oklahoma County jail May 20, she had already established with her arresting officers that she was transgender, but that it didn’t stop the jail employees from mocking her and playing jokes at her expense.
Two male officers called for a female officer to conduct a search of Ingram, and watched as the female officer conducted the pat down, Ingram said.
“She stops and just starts yelling ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,’” Ingram said. “She then very loudly asks me whether I’m a male or female. The other two officers are just laughing.”
Ingram said a female officer then searched her top half while a male officer searched her bottom half, in full view of other inmates.
“It just felt very degrading,” Ingram said. “I was embarrassed. I had my head down the whole time because I did not want to make eye contact with anybody around me. I felt stripped of all dignity.”
In a statement released Friday afternoon, an Oklahoma County jail spokesman said officials reviewed the video of Ingram’s booking after being notified of her complaint by The Oklahoman and that jail personnel acted according to policy.
The statement said that after staff spoke with Ingram, she was booked into the jail as a female and the name of Sasha Ingram was added to her booking history.
Before being pat searched, she was interviewed by nursing staff. She was then taken to a women’s holding area and was supervised by female officers. She was placed on a bench with other female inmates, where she remained until police released her, according to the sheriff’s department.
The sheriff’s office declined to release the videotape or make it available for viewing, citing department policy.
Ingram offered a much different account, saying that she was placed with the male population during the booking process, where she was harassed and verbally assaulted by the inmates.
One inmate cat-called Ingram and made sexually explicit references, she said. When an officer then mentioned Ingram was transgender, “The sexual advances were now transphobic and sexist slurs,” she said. “He was objectifying my body in many different ways and calling me a freak. Three officers just stood by and didn’t say anything.”
Ingram said the abuse went on for nearly three hours.
In addition to the degrading treatment from other inmates, the jail staff also took turns peering around corners and snickering at her, she said.
“It was just the most uncomfortable space I’ve ever been in,” Ingram said. “Not only were they not stopping this, but it felt like they were condoning the behavior.”