Watch: Activist Testifies on Woman Sexually Harassed by Male Inmate in California

Activist Kelsey Bolar of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) testified on Capitol Hill about a woman who was allegedly sexually harassed by a male inmate she had been forcibly housed with under California law.

Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee, subcommittee on Criminal Justice & Counterterrorism, Bolar shared a photo of Cathleen Quinn, an inmate who allegedly lost her parole after objecting to California’s Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act (TRADA), also known as SB 132.

“A male repeatedly peeped on her while she used the bathroom naked from the waist down,” Bolar said.

According to Bolar, Quinn lost her parole date after reporting the harassment to authorities. In a caption sharing the video on X, the account Women Are Real said:

Cathleen Quinn is a political prisoner held by the state of CA for daring to say she didn’t feel safe being housed with intact men. She was 3 weeks away from her release. And the state revoked her parole. It’s important that folks understand Cathleen was punished so harshly because she and Tomiekia Johnson were the first incarcerated women to speak against SB 132.

The state needed to make an example of these two women. They needed to show ALL the other women housed in prison that they better shut up or they too would lose their job, their honor dorm housing, their parole, their everything. This tactic has been highly effective. But it is crumbling. I’ve waited so long to share Cathleen’s story and I am so proud that her bravery now has allowed her story to be shared in front of US Senators.

According to Women’s Liberation Front, Kathleen Quinn suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband until she was convicted of his murder in 2004.

“Shortly after she was found suitable for parole, CCWF issued a retaliatory Rules Violation Report (‘RVR’) against Cathleen for reporting the harassment, alleging that she had done so due to ‘bias’ against this man, leading to her parole grant being vacated. At the time of the revocation, she was roughly four months away from freedom,” noted the organization.

“The next year, Cathleen appealed the RVR and, after 11 months, was exonerated and found not guilty. Stripped of its reason to keep Cathleen in prison, CCWF’s parole board created new pretextual reasons to continue to block her parole eligibility for an additional five years, this time by arbitrarily finding her guilty of an ambiguous violation of ‘institutional misconduct,'” it added. “CCWF did not even hide its bias against Cathleen. The Commissioner overseeing Cathleen’s parole hearing told her she ‘should have been quiet’ about her victimization so she could have ‘gone home.'”