BOSTON — Women’s rights activists want transgender prisoners kicked out of Massachusetts’ only state-run prison for women in Framingham, a facility they say houses convicted male murderers and rapists.

The state Department of Correction has refused to confirm to the Herald how many biological male inmates are housed at MCI Framingham despite multiple requests, as advocacy network Women’s Declaration International USA says at least 18 are serving sentences there.

Women’s Declaration International USA and scores of women are protesting a Charlie Baker-era law that gave transgender prisoners the freedom to be housed at correctional facilities that align with their gender identity.

“We hope that both politicians and the media who are here will finally begin to recognize that fighting to stop the abuse of incarcerated women is not ‘anti-trans’ as we so often see it mislabeled in headlines,” Christy Hammer, co-director of New England Women’s Solidarity, told roughly 30 supporters in Framingham on Friday.

“It is pro-women,” Hammer added.

The leader of the grassroots feminist movement pointed to how Massachusetts’ law granting freedom to transgender prisoners runs contrary to the U.N.-adopted Nelson Mandela Rules. The universal guidelines for incarcerated people call for men and women to be detained in separate institutions, or at least in entirely separate premises if held at the same facility.

Hammer highlighted a handful of biological male prisoners at the Framingham women’s prison, starting with Katheena Nevia Soneeya, who was convicted in 1982 of murdering two women and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

DOC physicians diagnosed Soneeya, who identified as a man named Kenneth Hunt at the time of the murders, with gender dysphoria after a failed attempt at self-castration in 1990. Soneeya argued for years to be transferred out of prisons for men on the claim that the DOC violated constitutional rights to medical care and hormone treatments.

In 2024, the inmate won a federal ruling that allowed Soneeya to be moved to Framingham.

Another biological male inmate at Framingham that Hammer referenced is Charlese Horton, a Level 3 sex offender convicted of kidnapping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint and assaulting him in Dorchester in incidents in 2019 and 2020. Horton, convicted in 2025, is serving 25-35 years in prison, followed by five years of probation.

Back in the early 2000s, the inmate, then known as Charles Ebony Horton, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and kidnapping of a child under the age of 14 and was registered as a Level 3 sex offender.

“Female inmates say nearly all of these men remain sexually intact: They are larger and stronger than the women who say they are in fear for their safety all the time,” Hammer said, citing the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center finding that 86% of incarcerated women are survivors of sexual violence.

“Forcing them to share intimate facilities where they undress and shower with males risks retraumatizing them,” she added.

The DOC responded on Monday to Herald inquiries for the number of transgender prisoners at or seeking transfer to Framingham and how the agency classifies the inmates by stating that the facility is for “female offenders.”

“DOC’s policy regarding transgender inmates is defined by a 2018 state law and federal court ruling,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. The agency did not state the number of biological male inmates.

Per the law, a prisoner who has a gender identity different from their biological sex, with or without gender dysphoria or other physical or mental health diagnosis, can be “addressed in a manner consistent with the prisoner’s gender identity,” according to the text of the law.

That means the prisoner can be provided with access to commissary items, clothing, programming, educational materials and personal property aligned with their identity. An inmate can also be “searched by an officer of the same gender identity if the search requires an inmate to remove all clothing or includes a visual inspection of the anal cavity or genitals.”

All of these options are on the table “unless the commissioner, the sheriff or a designee of the commissioner or sheriff certifies in writing that the particular placement would not ensure the prisoner’s health or safety or that the placement would present management or security problems,” the law states.

Holly Stewart, president of Women’s Declaration International USA, oversees NotOurCrimes.info, a public database that tracks the criminal records and incarceration statuses of “trans”-identified males in U.S. correctional facilities.

The most recent quarterly update, released last week, she said, documents 489 men who identify as women who have been incarcerated in the country at some point. In 44% of those cases, the men did not identify as women until after their arrests or convictions, she added.

Stewart said public awareness on this issue is critical to ensuring women’s rights to safety.

“If we don’t know,” she said, “we won’t call on the media and legislatures to value honesty in the public record or the desires of men who say they are women. We won’t vote out politicians who pass laws or enact regulations without regard to their consequences for women’s rights.”

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