Illinois transgender inmate to be moved from current prison

CHICAGO – Lawyers for a transgender woman say Illinois’ Department of Corrections has agreed to move her from her current male prison where she says she’s suffered brutal abuse by guards and inmates.

Tuesday’s agreement doesn’t include a decision on whether 26-year-old Deon “Strawberry” Hampton will become one of the state’s first transgender women to be granted a requested transfer from a male to female prison.

A lawyers’ spokeswoman, Jessey Neves, of the MacArthur Justice Center, says that decision will be made within 60 days by a gender-identity committee. Hearings before a southern Illinois federal judge on Hampton’s request were cut short when the sides agreed Hampton would be moved to a different facility pending the committee decision. Hampton is serving a 10-year burglary sentence.

The department didn’t return messages seeking comment.