WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:02.040 A warning before we start. 2 00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:08.760 There is a description of a sexual assault in this story. 3 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:13.560 It's early in the morning in July of twenty eighteen, 4 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:19.000 and the day is already blistering hot. I'm walking into 5 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.040 the Price Daniel Unit. It's a medium security prison a 6 00:00:23.040 --> 00:00:25.880 few hours west of Dallas. I had to drive through 7 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:29.400 miles of wind turbines and oil rigs before I arrived 8 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:32.640 at the prison's gray cement entrance. 9 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:36.640 We got you set up over here. Do you have 10 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:37.280 any water? 11 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:38.959 Just ma own, We'll get you some more. 12 00:00:40.120 --> 00:00:41.320 I'm about to kill. 13 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:45.600 Over a big, kind of bulky prison guard leads me 14 00:00:45.800 --> 00:00:49.520 to the visiting room at this men's prison. But I'm 15 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:53.520 here to see estre Ye, an undocumented trans woman who 16 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:57.400 is serving a nine year sentence for a nonviolent crime. 17 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:06.120 Is Yes. Istria was convicted of fraud and theft of 18 00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:10.319 property related to a check caching scheme in twenty seventeen. 19 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:14.440 She's always maintained that she was forced to cash those 20 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:17.160 fraudulent texts by her abusive ex boyfriend. 21 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:18.280 Oh my god, is. 22 00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:28.440 This is my third time visiting Estria and this time 23 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:33.640 she looks noticeably different. She had to spend a year 24 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:36.760 fighting in court in order to get her hormone treatment, 25 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:40.480 and she's finally receiving it again. It's a combination of 26 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:46.959 testosterone blockers and estrogen injections. Estria calls them her marita machica, 27 00:01:47.080 --> 00:01:51.000 her little magic wand that is helping align her physical 28 00:01:51.080 --> 00:01:53.480 body with her gender identity. 29 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:55.320 Wow, as your eye? 30 00:01:58.840 --> 00:01:59.440 What happened? 31 00:01:59.440 --> 00:01:59.920 What do you mean? 32 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:04.200 And when I compliment her sculpted eyebrows, she lowers her voice. 33 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:07.559 She says she hopes the guards don't catch her. Esthria 34 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:10.280 could be given a write up for tweeting her eyebrows, 35 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:12.840 and that could lead to a lot of trouble. 36 00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:15.519 I'm sorry, do you work for you? 37 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:20.000 Regligimisits And just as I'm asking Esterria why that is, 38 00:02:20.440 --> 00:02:23.360 a female guard comes and sits next to us. 39 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:24.919 So you're listening for what reason? 40 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:26.679 Take a lot? 41 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:29.679 They needed an interpreter? No, no, do you want to? 42 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.600 The woman tells me that she's an interpreter. But when 43 00:02:33.600 --> 00:02:36.200 I say to her that I speak Spanish, then she 44 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:41.320 tells me she's there for a different reason, not necess yes, but. 45 00:02:41.720 --> 00:02:43.880 The warden wanted me here to make sure there was 46 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:45.280 nothing else is going on. 47 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:49.160 So they just asked somebody to come and stay and 48 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:51.160 listen to the conversation. 49 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:51.840 That I'm having with Istria. 50 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.720 That prison guard, well, she ended up staying with us 51 00:02:55.760 --> 00:02:59.080 the entire two hours that I spent with Istralla that day. 52 00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:02.920 At one time point, Estraya leaned over the cold, stainless 53 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:05.000 steel table and told me. 54 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:10.880 Not getting kas cosas in man as quenos pasan anosrosaki 55 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:12.080 in a pristian. 56 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.880 That prison officials want someone there because they don't want 57 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:18.880 her to talk about the inhumane conditions that gay and 58 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:28.880 trans people live with behind bars. From Futuro Media, It's 59 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:32.880 Latino USA. I'm Maria in Josa, and today the story 60 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:37.480 of Istrea punished for breaking the law, for being undocumented 61 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:49.000 and for being a woman in a men's prison. Let's 62 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:52.960 go back to the beginning. I first meet Estraya in 63 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:54.520 twenty seventeen. 64 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:58.920 Quorder patrol agents arrested Ervin Gonzalez, a transgender woman. 65 00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:03.160 Irving Gonzale, that's Istria's legal name, right after she got 66 00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:03.760 out of court. 67 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:06.160 She was there to get a protective order. 68 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:09.600 Istria's case was a turning point. It was a clear 69 00:04:09.640 --> 00:04:12.880 statement that not even a courtroom would be a safe 70 00:04:12.920 --> 00:04:21.880 space for undocumented people. Istria has been living in the 71 00:04:21.960 --> 00:04:25.640 United States since she was just eighteen years old. She 72 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:30.920 grew up in Acapulco, Mexico. Back then, she identified as gay, 73 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:34.000 but she kept this a secret for as long as 74 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.400 she could. Things were brutal in Acapulco in the nineteen nineties, 75 00:04:38.960 --> 00:04:43.160 gay men were being attacked and killed indiscriminately. When Estraya 76 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.120 was still in high school, she says a group of 77 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:48.240 men saw her with her boyfriend, and she says they 78 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:53.040 attacked Isthreea, nearly killing her. Istria's mother gave her an 79 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:56.440 ultimatum either get married to a woman and live a 80 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:05.760 heterosexual life, or get out and move to the United States. 81 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:07.479 Estraya did both. 82 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:10.039 She moved to La to start a new life with 83 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:12.480 the woman who would soon become the mother of her 84 00:05:12.520 --> 00:05:18.599 two children. They eventually separated, and Estrallam then began to 85 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:23.280 openly identify as a trans woman. In twenty fifteen, she 86 00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:27.279 began a relationship with Mario de Abilap. He's a US citizen, 87 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:30.320 and she says he's the one that forced her to 88 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:35.000 cash those fraudulent checks, threatening her with physical violence and 89 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.919 even with calleen immigration authorities against her if she didn't 90 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:42.799 do what he said. The abbe Lamp was also later convicted. 91 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:51.440 He was given a much shorter sentence. Today, Estralla has 92 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:55.000 served nearly four years of her nine year sentence, and 93 00:05:55.080 --> 00:05:59.000 throughout it all we've remained in communication. Almost every week, 94 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:08.480 and sometimes multiple times a week, Istria calls me. I 95 00:06:08.520 --> 00:06:11.560 always hold my breath until I hear Istria's voice on 96 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:13.919 the other end of the line. I can tell a 97 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:17.400 lot about what's going on just by the way she says. 98 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.240 Hello, Lesriyah. 99 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:26.479 Sometimes istrias Hellos are super cheerful. Prison life is really hard, 100 00:06:26.520 --> 00:06:30.760 but she's trying her best to adapt. Recently, she's taken 101 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:35.359 to calling her cell Sukasa her house, and she tells 102 00:06:35.400 --> 00:06:38.680 me how much she enjoys keeping it neat and tidy 103 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:46.120 and clean. Below Istria always loved cooking. On this day, 104 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:50.760 Istria tells me she's making pizza. Because Istria has to 105 00:06:50.760 --> 00:06:54.360 make do with whatever ingredients she can find in the commissary. 106 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:58.119 Today's pizza crust is made with mashed up instant ramen 107 00:06:58.200 --> 00:07:02.560 and saltine crackers. Esterreya tells me it was delicious. 108 00:07:03.080 --> 00:07:07.640 Oh my god, Issterdya can't even the gist that was Kisstaia. 109 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:11.720 Aqui. But Esterreya also spends a lot of time thinking 110 00:07:11.760 --> 00:07:15.560 about her life once she gets out of prison, and 111 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:21.480 there's one particularly simple but powerful dream that she holds onto. 112 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:27.240 Undia Assistia Aldestila Gain. 113 00:07:27.640 --> 00:07:30.360 She wants to be part of a pride parade here 114 00:07:30.400 --> 00:07:35.120 in the United States. But other days I can tell 115 00:07:35.200 --> 00:07:38.760 that something is wrong. She often talks about the contradiction 116 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:43.760 of transitioning to a woman in a men's prison. On 117 00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:47.000 the one hand, she feels happier and more aligned with 118 00:07:47.080 --> 00:07:50.880 her general identity than ever before in her life, But 119 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:55.240 on the other hand, she's in prison and she's constantly 120 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:00.560 being harassed because she's trans by both guards and prisoners alike. 121 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:04.560 Right now, we're going to pick up her story in 122 00:08:04.760 --> 00:08:08.040 January of twenty nineteen when I get a call from 123 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:10.720 Istraa but it's from a different prison. 124 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:15.800 In all red unit. Yes, That'sujeta. 125 00:08:17.200 --> 00:08:21.400 Istria had been transferred again. This was the fourth time 126 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:24.680 in only two years, and this time she was being 127 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:28.520 moved to a maximum security prison, even though she's been 128 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.560 convicted of a non violent offense. 129 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:33.440 O La Bella. 130 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.040 On January second of twenty nineteen, Istria arrived at the 131 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:43.040 Already unit in North Texas on the border of Oklahoma, 132 00:08:43.640 --> 00:08:47.559 and that's where she's currently serving her sentence. Already is 133 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:50.040 one of the last places where you hope to end 134 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:53.520 up as an incarcerated person. It's a prison that has 135 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:56.040 a long record of sexual violence. 136 00:08:58.760 --> 00:08:59.880 One four Pasini. 137 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:04.800 Esria tells me she was shocked when she got there. 138 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.040 The prison has three floors. Door after door would be 139 00:09:09.160 --> 00:09:12.000 slammed and locked behind her as she made her way 140 00:09:12.400 --> 00:09:15.439 to her cell. The first day that Estria got there, 141 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:18.680 one of the other trans women in the prison came 142 00:09:18.760 --> 00:09:19.560 up to her and. 143 00:09:19.640 --> 00:09:22.080 Gave her a warning, very cool with. 144 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:27.199 It and I leave it. 145 00:09:27.640 --> 00:09:30.600 She told Istria to be careful with her cell mate. 146 00:09:31.160 --> 00:09:34.160 Word around all read was that her cell mat had 147 00:09:34.280 --> 00:09:39.840 raped several women before he was incarcerated. After that, Estria 148 00:09:39.920 --> 00:09:50.040 went into her new cell to meet him. Esria said 149 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.280 she followed the prison code, which means that the person 150 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:55.959 who is in the cell first gets to make the 151 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:59.560 rules and any new arrival has to follow those rules. 152 00:10:00.040 --> 00:10:04.439 Ticket She told her cellmate that she knew this was 153 00:10:04.880 --> 00:10:11.520 his space, and to her surprise, her cellmate told her 154 00:10:11.920 --> 00:10:16.079 it was her home too. So Isterria tried her best 155 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:17.400 to make it feel. 156 00:10:17.400 --> 00:10:19.320 Like her own. I think. 157 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:30.360 She called me one day to tell me about a 158 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.640 small envelope of pictures that a friend had mailed to her. 159 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:37.839 There were photos of her before her gender transition. There 160 00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:40.800 was even a picture of her the first time Estraya, 161 00:10:40.880 --> 00:10:49.520 dressed in gender affirming clothes, in tight jeans and a 162 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:53.760 colorful blouse. Istria remembers how happy she was to finally 163 00:10:53.880 --> 00:10:59.440 feel like she was herself. Looking at this photograph, Esterria 164 00:10:59.520 --> 00:11:02.880 thought about just how far she's come in her transition. 165 00:11:08.280 --> 00:11:11.360 There's another picture where she's with her ex wife, the 166 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:14.760 mother of her children, back at their house in Los Angeles. 167 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:17.720 Esterrea tells me she wants to reunite with her family 168 00:11:17.760 --> 00:11:20.320 when she gets out. She wants to show them how 169 00:11:20.400 --> 00:11:31.880 much she's changed after just a year of being back 170 00:11:32.160 --> 00:11:35.880 on her hormone treatment. Is Theeya is amazed at how 171 00:11:35.920 --> 00:11:39.319 her body is changing right before her very eyes. She 172 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:44.079 says she loves looking at her hips. It's little moments 173 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:47.440 like these where she can celebrate everything that she's fought 174 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:57.240 for the first couple of weeks in already seemed to 175 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:01.240 be going okay. Esdrea was settling in and her cellmate 176 00:12:01.400 --> 00:12:05.480 seemed to have no interest in her, but soon things 177 00:12:05.520 --> 00:12:16.199 started to get ugly. It all started one night when 178 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.719 Israa asked if they could turn off the light in 179 00:12:18.800 --> 00:12:22.360 their cell because she wasn't feeling well. Her cell mate 180 00:12:22.400 --> 00:12:26.880 told her no. Istria didn't insist. She knew that she 181 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:34.000 had to pick her battles. When Istraya got up to 182 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.240 take a pill, she says, her cell mate got up 183 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:46.880 to and then pushed her hard. Mon Istria went back 184 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.920 up to the top bunk and began to cry out 185 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:59.800 of frustration, but now also out of fear. Okay, she 186 00:13:00.160 --> 00:13:03.320 heard that this man was violent and had even allegedly 187 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:09.920 killed people in other prisons before coming to Already, Aria 188 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:13.679 was terrified, but in a moment of courage, she leapt 189 00:13:13.760 --> 00:13:16.559 down from her bed and asked him what did he 190 00:13:16.640 --> 00:13:25.079 want from her. She expected to be slapped or to 191 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:37.439 be pushed around, but she did not expect to have 192 00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:46.880 her nose bashed in Now blood was gushing everywhere. After 193 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:50.360 that first incident, Istria tried putting on a smile for 194 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:54.200 the world outside her cell. She says she was terrified 195 00:13:54.280 --> 00:13:57.120 of what her cellmate would do if she told anyone 196 00:13:57.320 --> 00:14:02.679 what had already happened. Three weeks passed and by now 197 00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:06.040 Estriya had been able to resume her daily routine without 198 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:13.280 being assaulted, and then Valentine's Day rolled around. It started 199 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:20.720 out okay. One of her friends even gave her a 200 00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:23.960 radio and told her, thank you for being my friend. 201 00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:35.200 Went back to her cell and turned on her radio. 202 00:14:35.560 --> 00:14:38.640 As she began to cook, she remembers the radio station 203 00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:50.600 was having a Marco Anton special. Without even thinking about it, 204 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:53.400 Esdreya had turned up the music. It was a love 205 00:14:53.520 --> 00:14:56.280 song and she began singing it to herself. 206 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:00.800 And just gopping. 207 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.280 Suddenly, her cell mate got up and turned off the radio. 208 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:09.360 Yesterdya plugged in her headphones and turned the radio back on, 209 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:18.840 but her cell mate ripped the headphones out from her 210 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:26.760 ears and threw them across the cell. He pushed her 211 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:30.160 around until he heard the doors unlock. It was time 212 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:33.760 for the eleven o'clock count. A guard began walking down 213 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:39.880 the hall making his rounds. Look she says, her cell 214 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:42.440 mate hit her and told her that she would be 215 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:45.600 all right only if she kept quiet. So when the 216 00:15:45.680 --> 00:15:48.760 guard knocked on the door of their cell, Esterriya didn't 217 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:56.280 say a word Throughout that entire night. Estralla says she 218 00:15:56.440 --> 00:15:59.760 was brutalized. She couldn't get any sleep, but the worst 219 00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:03.120 was going to come much later the next morning, at 220 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:05.800 about three o'clock, when the cell doors open for the 221 00:16:05.880 --> 00:16:09.640 breakfast call, Estraya wanted to leave as soon as possible, 222 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.200 but her cellmate told her she had to stay inside. 223 00:16:14.880 --> 00:16:18.120 When her cellmate returned from breakfast, she told me he 224 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:21.040 forced himself on the bed with her and began to 225 00:16:21.280 --> 00:16:24.360 violently assault her. She says she pleaded with him to 226 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:35.560 leave her alone, but he didn't stop. Estella never reported 227 00:16:35.680 --> 00:16:39.400 the rape to prison officials. She was too afraid to 228 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:39.720 do that. 229 00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:40.800 She says. 230 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:45.560 Everyone behind bars knows that the administration's involvement doesn't make 231 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:49.320 it any safer for them inside the prison once they've 232 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:55.320 been attacked, and this is something that seems to happen 233 00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:59.400 far too often in Already and in other state prisons 234 00:16:59.640 --> 00:17:03.000 like it in Texas and across the country. A survey 235 00:17:03.160 --> 00:17:07.760 conducted by two advocacy groups in twenty sixteen gathered testimonies 236 00:17:07.800 --> 00:17:12.040 from Allred and from two other state prisons, presenting page 237 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:16.240 after page of anonymous stories that sound eerily similar to 238 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:20.680 what Istrea has recounted. Many of the respondents were gay 239 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:23.480 or trans, and all of them said that they felt 240 00:17:23.520 --> 00:17:28.679 they had been targeted for their sexual orientation. We reached 241 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:32.560 out to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice requesting an interview. 242 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:36.680 On several occasions, we did not receive a response. 243 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:38.640 We'll be right back. 244 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:31.560 We're back, and today we're listening to the story of 245 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:36.920 Estria Gonzalez, an undocumented trans woman serving a nine year 246 00:18:37.080 --> 00:18:41.880 sentence at the James V. Already Unit, a maximum security 247 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:47.679 men's prison in Texas. Estria says she was sexually assaulted 248 00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:51.640 by her cellmate inside the prison. A few weeks after 249 00:18:51.760 --> 00:18:54.520 the assault, Estria called me to tell me that she 250 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:57.440 had news to share. She had been moved to a 251 00:18:57.560 --> 00:19:02.000 new unit, and she said she was meeting other undocumented 252 00:19:02.080 --> 00:19:03.600 people just like her. 253 00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:06.399 From the. 254 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:14.800 Isterreya says things are a bit more calm here. The 255 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:17.440 other undocumented people in her unit are on their best 256 00:19:17.560 --> 00:19:21.159 behavior because they, like Estheya, are hoping to apply to 257 00:19:21.280 --> 00:19:24.639 stay in the United States. Esterraya is applying for a 258 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:29.000 U visa. It's also known as a victim visa. It's 259 00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:32.560 reserved for people who are victims of crimes in the 260 00:19:32.680 --> 00:19:35.920 United States. Who can help in the prosecution of the 261 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.440 person who committed that crime. In Israea's case, that would 262 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.520 be her abusive ex boyfriend. If approved, Isriya could one 263 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:48.159 day hope to become a US citizen. It's not like 264 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:53.400 it's an official undocumented unit in the prison, but there 265 00:19:53.560 --> 00:19:56.560 just happened to be a lot of undocumented people all together, 266 00:19:57.320 --> 00:20:00.520 and they share something else, which is is that in 267 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:04.680 the Texas prison system, these people don't have the same 268 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:08.880 access as other prisoners to the very few rehabilitative programs 269 00:20:09.040 --> 00:20:15.240 at already no school, no NAA, the classes Sparta, for example, 270 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:18.920 they can't go to class to get their ged or 271 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:22.920 participate in any of the college programs. Estreya says she 272 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:26.200 was told she couldn't even go to the English language 273 00:20:26.320 --> 00:20:33.520 learning programs. The only thing undocumented immigrants held in this 274 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:36.080 prison are allowed to do is work. 275 00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:43.840 No no, no, no. 276 00:20:46.359 --> 00:20:48.159 They don't even get paid for the work they do, 277 00:20:48.359 --> 00:20:50.160 she tells me. She says. 278 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:52.760 The most the prison will do is reduce time from 279 00:20:52.800 --> 00:20:55.959 your sentence, and not being able to make money legally 280 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:59.879 behind bars poses a real challenge for all in car 281 00:21:00.080 --> 00:21:05.960 t rated people, and for undocumented prisoners. It's especially hard 282 00:21:06.080 --> 00:21:09.720 for them to stay afloat. They often are alone in 283 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:13.560 this country or their families are depending on them financially, 284 00:21:13.840 --> 00:21:19.160 and many incarcerated people increase their food supply substantially when 285 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:23.080 they buy from commissary, So not being able to earn 286 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:27.119 money and then buy food from the commissary can have 287 00:21:27.320 --> 00:21:34.800 a real impact on your survival. But for Estrella, the 288 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:37.560 bright side of moving to a new unit is that 289 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.600 she doesn't have to worry about her cellmate anymore. I 290 00:21:48.760 --> 00:21:51.600 Estraa says she even got a hold of a radio 291 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:56.400 again and hasn't slept because at night she's been dancing 292 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:08.080 and dancing. Prison has become a little bit more bearable 293 00:22:08.600 --> 00:22:11.359 until things started to sour again. 294 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:13.440 Haidia aim Amita. 295 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:16.760 It was March of twenty nineteen and there was a 296 00:22:16.840 --> 00:22:20.560 prisoner in her new unit, an older man who was 297 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:24.920 trying to extort her. He was demanding sixty dollars from 298 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:27.000 her or He said he was going to beat her up, 299 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:30.840 but Isthreya without any means of making money. She told 300 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:33.480 me that she didn't know what to do. She was 301 00:22:33.760 --> 00:22:37.879 really scared. Nothing much came of it. Esteya didn't have 302 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:39.880 the money, and eventually. 303 00:22:39.760 --> 00:22:40.359 He dropped it. 304 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:44.280 But then in June of twenty nineteen, out of nowhere, 305 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.560 Esteya stopped calling me. The silence went on for weeks, 306 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:52.800 and I started to get really worried, so I called 307 00:22:52.840 --> 00:22:55.919 istraea as lawyer. She told me that Estraya had been 308 00:22:55.960 --> 00:23:00.159 put into solitary confinement, at first with no explanation, and 309 00:23:00.280 --> 00:23:04.239 then eventually, she says, Estraya was told that she had 310 00:23:04.320 --> 00:23:08.639 committed an infraction, that by telling me the story of 311 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:13.280 the extortion attempt, Estralla was really trying to extort me 312 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:27.280 for the money. And then, just a few weeks after 313 00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:31.399 Estralla had been moved into solitary, now I receive a 314 00:23:31.600 --> 00:23:34.480 very official looking letter in the mail from the Texas 315 00:23:34.600 --> 00:23:37.840 Department of Criminal Justice. The letter informed me that I 316 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:43.240 was being officially removed from Estralla's visitation list. I couldn't 317 00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:45.480 wrap my head around what was going on, so I 318 00:23:45.600 --> 00:23:49.840 called Melissa Unterrecker, who is Estria's immigration lawyer, to ask 319 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:51.960 if she understood what was going on. 320 00:23:54.200 --> 00:23:59.160 So, what do you know about what happened with Istralla? 321 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:04.399 Me, I really don't understand what the accusation fully is. 322 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:10.240 But because of that, you, Maria, I lost visitation for laches. 323 00:24:10.280 --> 00:24:13.359 We're threatened with being completely locked out of the Texas 324 00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:15.560 State prison system entirely. 325 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:20.520 And then soon after I received another official letter telling 326 00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:24.000 me that I was being banned from communicating with Israea 327 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:28.119 by mail. Strange they were allowing me to communicate with 328 00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:31.680 her by phone, which they say was the way she 329 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:32.480 was extorting me. 330 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:35.280 And I think it's crazy. I mean, it's absolutely I 331 00:24:35.320 --> 00:24:40.200 can't even begin to understand how the prison would would 332 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:45.440 justify based on that conversation, some criminal olitation against you. 333 00:24:46.280 --> 00:24:50.000 And it was just also strange, strange because all of 334 00:24:50.080 --> 00:24:53.960 this was happening really months after Istheya had told me 335 00:24:54.040 --> 00:24:54.880 about the extortion. 336 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:57.320 But I don't know if they're doing it, if it's 337 00:24:57.440 --> 00:24:59.520 just a way to punish Istraea, if it's a way 338 00:24:59.560 --> 00:25:01.800 of punish she was a journalist. They just don't want 339 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.920 their treatment of been meates exposed. They don't want people 340 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:07.640 to know what's really going on in there. 341 00:25:14.280 --> 00:25:16.600 One thing these official letters did say was that I 342 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:20.080 could file an appeal, so I sent off a response 343 00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:23.520 to both letters in the following weeks. And then after 344 00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:27.399 several months, when Estraya was finally given access to a phone, 345 00:25:27.560 --> 00:25:30.879 and when she was more comfortable explaining to me what 346 00:25:31.040 --> 00:25:32.480 had happened, she. 347 00:25:32.600 --> 00:25:33.439 Told me the story. 348 00:25:34.040 --> 00:25:37.280 She said prison guards had come into her cell one day, 349 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:41.040 asking who is the woman that Estraa was communicating with. 350 00:25:42.040 --> 00:25:44.040 Of course that woman would be me. 351 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:51.600 Esrea says the guards were holding onto a pile of 352 00:25:51.720 --> 00:25:55.439 papers that they looked like transcripts of all of our 353 00:25:55.520 --> 00:26:00.479 phone calls. She was punished with one year in restrictive housing, 354 00:26:01.080 --> 00:26:05.000 which is similar to solitary It would mean that Estria 355 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:15.000 is kept away from the general population. Eventually, Istria and 356 00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:24.080 I are back to our regular phone calls. Hello Ola, Istraa. 357 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:33.280 It's September of twenty nineteen, and Istraa calls me again. 358 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:37.600 This time she sounds agitated. Guards had come in and 359 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:41.440 searched herself top to bottom. She said that this had 360 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.399 happened a few times, but they were never explaining to 361 00:26:44.560 --> 00:26:50.960 her why. Istria tells me she doesn't have anything to hide, 362 00:26:51.600 --> 00:26:55.360 but still the searches feel intrusive and she feels targeted. 363 00:26:55.640 --> 00:27:06.000 Porquere porquekres istria gestanasiosto. Prisoners are taken out of their 364 00:27:06.080 --> 00:27:09.480 cells for these searches. But Istera says someone taught her 365 00:27:09.520 --> 00:27:13.200 a trick when she went to prison. They said, always 366 00:27:13.480 --> 00:27:17.800 number your photographs, your letters, your legal documents so that 367 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:21.040 you have a record. And Esteya has written tiny numbers 368 00:27:21.080 --> 00:27:23.840 on the back of each document and keeps them all 369 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:28.200 in numerical order. After the search, it's easy to know 370 00:27:28.359 --> 00:27:32.199 whether they've rifled through her private photos and letters, because 371 00:27:32.800 --> 00:27:36.280 just like this time, the numbers are now out of order. 372 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:49.119 They're going to say, I worry about what this extra 373 00:27:49.280 --> 00:27:53.120 attention that Isya is getting from the guards could really 374 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:57.199 be about. And I worry if I'm partly or wholly 375 00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:01.119 responsible for this. I wonder if yesterday I hadn't been 376 00:28:01.160 --> 00:28:04.679 talking to me a journalist, maybe they wouldn't have been 377 00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:10.160 listening so closely to her phone calls. So I thought 378 00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:13.119 about this a lot and investigated this and ended up 379 00:28:13.160 --> 00:28:16.920 speaking to the ACLU Prison Project. There they told me 380 00:28:17.040 --> 00:28:20.600 that prisoners benefit from having their stories told, that it 381 00:28:20.760 --> 00:28:24.640 forces the prison to be held accountable for their actions. 382 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:30.760 But the reality is there are many ways people behind 383 00:28:30.840 --> 00:28:34.960 bars can be punished for speaking out. Already esterday and 384 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.600 I are only allowed to speak on the phone, and 385 00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:42.240 there really isn't a fair way to fight back. There's 386 00:28:42.520 --> 00:28:46.880 so little transparency around prisons that every decision I make 387 00:28:47.080 --> 00:28:50.200 is like a gamble, and sometimes it feels like we're 388 00:28:50.560 --> 00:28:55.120 betting on yesterdaya as well being. Oftentimes I feel like 389 00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:58.600 I'm in a losing battle here. Esterya wants to tell 390 00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:02.400 her story, but by giving Istralla the possibility of speaking 391 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:05.120 her truth about what it's like to be an undocumented 392 00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:09.000 trans woman in a men's prison, I worry that I 393 00:29:09.120 --> 00:29:20.840 also may be putting her into danger. I'm eager to 394 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:24.760 go visit Estralla at already, and I don't give up hope. 395 00:29:25.560 --> 00:29:28.920 Our phone calls are listened too closely and monitored that 396 00:29:29.080 --> 00:29:33.360 much I know since the accusations came to light. But 397 00:29:33.520 --> 00:29:36.840 in person is therea and I talk more freely without 398 00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:40.560 a recorder or a guard listening in. It's a chance 399 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:43.960 for me to see her, to make sure that she's 400 00:29:44.520 --> 00:30:01.680 really okay. Finally, in late February of I come into 401 00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:05.480