Massachusetts has one state prison for women: MCI-Framingham. The state is putting men in it, and it won't say how many.
The state won't give a number
The Massachusetts Department of Correction refused "despite multiple requests" to tell the Boston Herald how many male inmates are held at Framingham.
Its answer: the prison is for "female offenders," and "DOC's policy regarding transgender inmates is defined by a 2018 state law and federal court ruling."
No official count has been published. Protest organizers told the Herald at least 18 males are there. Writers in City Journal, one of them a former justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, put it at "at least 11" in April. The state has confirmed neither number.
Who is inside
Two males at Framingham are on the public record:
- Kenneth Hunt, who now calls himself Katheena Soneeya, was convicted in 1982 of murdering two women and is serving life without parole, the Herald reports. In February 2024, U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock ordered the DOC to move him to MCI-Framingham as a step toward possible sex-change surgery. That is the "federal court ruling" the DOC points to.
- Charles Horton, who now calls himself Charlese, is a Level 3 sex offender. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to sexually assaulting and kidnapping a child under 14. In June 2025 he was sentenced to 25 to 35 years for kidnapping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint, twice, and assaulting him, the Suffolk County District Attorney said. The DA's office called him a "woman." The Herald reports he is held at Framingham.
What women inside are alleging
None of these claims has been tested in court, and no charges have been reported. They come from interviews with inmates published as commentary in The Hill and City Journal, and reported by the Daily Mail:
- A woman says she told officials she was raped by a trans-identified male inmate in November 2025. She says she was then put in restrictive housing herself.
- Women say they share communal showers with the males.
- Female officers must strip-search male inmates who ask for a female officer, according to DOC documents cited by City Journal.
What the law says
The law is Chapter 127, Section 32A, passed in the 2018 criminal justice reform signed by Gov. Charlie Baker. In plain words:
- A male prisoner who says his gender identity is female can ask to be housed in a women's prison.
- He doesn't need a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or any other diagnosis.
- The prison must place him where he asks, unless the commissioner certifies in writing that it would not keep him safe, or would cause "management or security problems."
- He must be called by his chosen name and pronouns, get women's clothing and commissary items, and can choose the sex of the officer who strip-searches him.
So the law already gives the commissioner a way to say no. Massachusetts won't say whether it has ever used it at Framingham.
Washington is looking at other states
In March, the U.S. Justice Department opened investigations into whether housing males in women's prisons in California and Maine violates female inmates' constitutional rights. Massachusetts is not on that list yet.
The bottom line
A state that won't tell its own taxpayers how many men it has locked up with women isn't being straight with them. The women at Framingham can't walk away. They deserve an answer, and so does everyone paying for that prison.
Cover photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)