National Review
California Inmate Says She Was Forced to Share Cell with Man Tied to Her Childhood Abusers
By CAROLINE DOWNEY
April 15, 2024 12:38 PM
Throughout childhood, Alissa Kamholz, who is serving a 39-year sentence at a California women’s prison, suffered sexual abuse.
Her mother remarried a member of the motorcycle gang The Hells Angels, who routinely preyed upon her, she told the Independent Women’s Forum in the latest episode of their video series, Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons.
“For ten years, I was violated continually by him and his biker buddies,” she said.
As a wedding present, she said, “my mother gave me to him.”
Over the years, The Hells Angels had earned a reputation for their criminal activity, including assaulting and gang-raping strangers or their members’ own girlfriends and family members.
Kamholz described her abusers as long-haired white men who were all part of the club.
Battered by these experiences, Kamholz eventually ended up at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) under the state’s three-strikes law. In 2004, she was convicted of carjacking which, with prior convictions for residential burglary and robbery in 1999, met the “second strike” criteria for a doubled prison sentence, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
At least in prison, she said, she felt a reprieve from the abuse. “Prison was my safe place,” she said.
That was true until California’s Senate Bill 132, known as the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act, went into effect in 2021. That law allowed male felons to relocate to the women’s facility if they declared themselves to be women.
A year and a half into the law being on the books, at least 321 requests for transfers based on gender identity had been filed. An attorney for a group of transgender inmates accused California prison officials of refusing to “fully implement” the law because the Department of Corrections had granted only 46 of those requests.
Administrators assured Kamholz and other concerned women that none of the men would be members of security-threat groups — the DOC’s term for prison gangs — be classified as above a Level II on the DOC’s threat scale, or have committed crimes against women. Kamholz said she was also told that male transfers would have received hormone therapy and transition surgery.
Ranging from Level I to Level IV, the security levels in the California prison system correspond to inmate case factors such as the type of crime committed and whether it was violent, prior incarcerations, and gang involvement. Level II facilities are usually open dormitories with a secure perimeter, which may include armed coverage, according to the CA DOC website. Level IV facilities usually include a secure perimeter with internal and external armed guards and housing units or cell block housing.
In November 2023, Kamholz learned that a long-haired, white male inmate would become her new cellmate. The familiar features reminded her of her abusers and amplified her already-recurring nightmares and PTSD. She lived in a constant state of panic.
“It was very hard for me to sleep,” she said.
Despite the Department of Correction’s claim to the contrary, Kamholz said that many of the male arrivals at CCWF were members of gangs.
“A large majority of them have crimes against women or children, and they’re Level IVs,” she said.
Former inmates and guards in the Washington state prison system previously told National Review that male felons have exploited the state’s trans accommodations to gain access to vulnerable female inmates. Kamholz said she’s witnessing the same dynamic in California.
“They’re very honest once they get here,” she said. “They say, ‘I’ve been down all this time. I’ve exhausted all my appeals. I’m never going home,’ and excuse my language but they say, ‘I just want p***y.’”
Kamholz initiated a private conversation with her male roommate to share her and other female inmates’ serious safety concerns with him. He allegedly agreed to move, saying he would be uncomfortable if he was in her position too. But then the man changed his mind, Kamholz said.
From subsequent conversations with the man, Kamholz discovered that he was from her town, El Cajon, Calif. She asked if he knew of the San Diego Hells Angels chapter clubhouse where she had been regularly abused. He confirmed he did, and that it was his frequent hangout spot.
“I know he wasn’t one of my own abusers because he’s only, I think, seven years older than me,” Kamholz said. “But there’s a 97 percent chance that [he was] there in the building or even the room while I was being raped and stuff.”
His background hit too close to home, and it haunted Kamholz.
“I feel like even being sentenced to prison was easier than having to deal with that,” she said.
After three weeks of living with him, he allegedly exposed himself to Kamholz’s female roommates while she wasn’t there, she said. Despite the incident, the prison moved him to a pre-honor dorm, a special-housing unit for well-behaved inmates who have gone six months without an infraction. There, he misbehaved more egregiously, and was promoted another level up to an honor dorm despite his conduct, Kamholz alleged.
“Then once he was in here, he choked out one of his roommates and beat up the other one,” Kamholz told IWF. “They went and reported it, the alarm got pushed, everything, and they rewarded him by moving him into the honor dorm in his girlfriend’s room. It’s ridiculous.”
The double standard of treatment extended to the dress code, which was observably relaxed for the transgender-identifying men but not the female residents.
“The men can do anything they want,” she said. “They can look any way. They can dress any way. I mean, there’s one that walks around with his shirt tied up like it was a halter top,” Kamholz said.
Female inmates, on the other hand, are expected to wear clothing that hides their body shape, keep their nails short, and only wear neutral makeup if any, she said.
“It’s shamefully hypocritical for the California prison system to proudly boast about their ‘commitment to rehabilitation,’ and ‘positive experiences’ while survivors of abuse are being re-traumatized day in and day out,” Andrea Mew, storytelling manager for IWF and co-producer of the documentary series, told National Review.
“How are women like Alissa Kamholz ever going to rehabilitate and reintegrate soundly into society when states that kowtow to the transgender lobby (like California) are compromising their mental and physical health,” she added. “Kamholz demonstrated true grit by telling her story from behind bars in this interview with Independent Women’s Forum, but not every incarcerated woman can comfortably do so. This is more than just a ‘gender’ issue – this is a matter of life and death.”
In November 2021, feminist advocacy organization Women’s Liberation Front sued the state DOC over the prison-housing law. Plaintiff Krystal Gonzalez said she was sexually assaulted by a male who was transferred to CCWF under the law. According to the suit, when Gonzalez filed a complaint and requested to be housed away from men the prison’s response called her alleged attacker a “transgender woman with a penis.”
The California Department of Corrections did not respond to request for comment.
