The recent arrest of a California fire captain’s wife in her fatal stabbing of her wife calls us to answer a much needed attention to intimate partner violence within the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly as it relates to the treatment of domestic violence victims in prison.
The tragic loss of life of a beloved community servant at the hands of her wife, who was previously incarcerated for the murder of her husband, calls attention to the effects of social as well as economic injustice disproportionately and overwhelmingly experienced by female victims of gender-based violence.
The domestic violence awareness and prevention movement in this country whether by act or omission is too much a part of the systemic carceral approach to domestic violence. While incarceration is very needed and required, the process is often not fair for survivors who are both victim and victimizer.
Extensive research has shown that individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ are at higher risk of homicide. This is in stark contrast to their cisgender counterparts, as reported byThe Human Rights Campaign.
Though not singularly victimized, women who are survivors of systemic, chronic, physical and sexual abuse are overrepresented within the prison population. Black women represent more than one-quarter of the female incarcerated population as cited by Public Policy Institute of California.
According to the California Legislative Analyst Office, about 3,900 women are imprisoned in the state, with approximately 2,500 housed at Chowchilla State Penitentiary. These numbers also include a large number of nonbinary, transgender and intersex individuals. Actual numbers of transgender, gender variant, and intersex are estimated at 1,600 as of 2022.
For fear of sexual violence, exploitation, and physical violence, many do not self-identify. From Crisis to Care reports that 43% of surveyed incarcerated women disclosed that intimate partner violence played a significant role in their incarceration and or criminalization.
In 30 years as a survivor advocate, leader, program provider and expert on DV/IPV batterers treatment, I have seen many heartbreaking cases. The cliched narrative of “what is good for the goose is good for the gander,” was once one I supported. But when touched personally by violence, I paid the price. Too often the solution to gender violence is jail.
As a Latina, I bore witness, and shed tears for how reforms and advanced policies to protect me as a victim destroyed my career and eviscerated my character when I asked for help. Jail was no safer and it was no solution.
It is difficult to truly understand the complexities of intimate partner violence within the LGBTQ+ community. Individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ are overwhelmingly represented in local and national statistics of victimization of domestic/intimate partner violence. The DC Volunteer Lawyer Project cited the 2015 research review and showed the increased criminalization experienced by survivors who identify as LGBTQ+.
The report spotlights that bi-sexual women experience more sexual violence across their lifetime, while LGBTQ+ individuals will likely experience intimate partner violence continuously throughout their lifetime. While there is statistically a difference to their heterosexual counterparts, the barriers, isolation, systemic discrimination, and targeted violence LGBTQ+ victims experience by identifying, disclosing, and accessing supportive services is extensive.
The Stanford Criminal Justice Center in 2023 collected a review on their finding of California’s Parole Review Board, and found that over 90% of survivors incarcerated for IPV-related homicides had experienced other forms of trauma—such as child abuse or sexual violence—prior to their incarceration. This is in addition to how sentencing enhancements might disproportionately impact women
There is added adversity of navigating a criminal justice system with a carceral approach of domestic violence policies on mandatory arrest. Perhaps well-intentioned in order to provide increased safety for survivors, all too often persons are arrested for actions of self-defense, jailed, and imprisoned to expedite the judicial systems’ delayed cogs of justice.
Survivors often find themselves between being seen as a victim or as a perpetrator. A perpetrator is forever labeled. A victim is labeled as well.
In the 1980s, the clinical director administered her first Battered Women psychological evaluations at Chowchilla. One woman, Maria Suarez, was imprisoned for her part in the death of her abuser and trafficker..
That evaluation and a movement for an early release championed by her family, community members and psychologist, Dr. Sandra G. Baca, Psy.d led to Governor Gray Davis’ approval for parole in 2003.
The California Coalition for Womens’s Prisoner, instrumental in their advocacy, helped bring one person’s narrative to life. Through the collective work, she is now a DV advocate and program facilitator, who launched her own anti-trafficking non-profit for youth.
The voices of survivors who not only have experienced singular events of violence and victimization, by their partners, communities, and the criminal system are crucial. A new project, The Paper Trail, a community journalism project at Chowchilla Prison, a Central California Women’s Facility launched by The Pollen Initiative, is one answer to giving space to those to share their stories. This needs to be a national initiative.
It is time to formally recognize the harm that mandates on how to educate, identify, respond, support, enforce, and sentence individuals with the restorative justice principles on domestic and intimate violence actually have harmed individuals. These approaches contribute to mass incarceration, inequity for people of color, and lead to an imbalance of treatment services for communities marginalized by community violence and poverty.
The tragic life lost of California Fire Capt. Rebecca Marodi alone showcases how a carceral approach to intimate partner homicide, but did not prevent loss of life. The system’s approach, while punitive and retributive, did not keep another homicide from happening. The need to re-evaluate the criminal system, and parole process is long overdue.
There must be an approach where lawyers, policymakers, advocates, mental health professionals and communities examine the factors of each case carefully and not treat prison as a cure. It is not.