Taylor on ending the “meat show” in Texas prisons
Taylor: I have to say now I’m going to talk about a unit called Allred Unit at TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice). But I’ve heard recently about that unit, that it has changed. When I was there, it was tough. It was very tough if you were gay or transgender. The name is the Allred Unit. Many people joke that it’s the All Redneck Unit.
Taylor is a trans woman incarcerated in Texas who learned when she was a teenager that she would be spending the rest of her life in prison. She shares the story of her trial, her coming-out journey, and her mission to spread wisdom and positivity to the people on her unit.
It’s 15 miles away from the border in Oklahoma. And the culture on that unit with the officers is very anti-inmate. Instead of working with inmates, they would almost intentionally cause conflict with inmates. I was sent to this unit and put on [safe]keeping. After I came out transgender and due to problems I had in my youth,I was put in here for what was meant to be protection, a safer place.
On this unit, the problem that me and you had, I got in a little bit of trouble. I was put on a more restricted area. Every time I left the area, they would strip-search me. They would strip-search everyone, but this was not a private strip-search. They were strip-searching us in front of a hundred other people, two other sections.
They used to joke that it was called the “meat show.” People would come to the windows just to watch us get naked. This was really, really hard for me. I wasn’t used to this. I wasn’t used to having predators send me little letters to my house, telling me their opinion of how I look naked, all the things they want to do with me. That was very tough to deal with.
And that was the only way I could eat. If I want to leave to get a meal, I must get strip-searched in front of everyone. If I want to go to medical, I must get strip-searched. If I wanted to go to visit, see my family, I must get strip-searched in front of everyone. There was a period that the anxiety was getting so bad that I almost stopped eating. I was not going to medical. I was going for the minimal amount of chow hall food.
I was doing everything in my power not to have to deal with the “meat show.”
We started petitions. We started complaints against TDCJ specifically against this issue. And after thousands of people signed on to our petition, policy was changed. The warden talked to me specifically and told me that there were only two units in all of TDCJ, which at that time had close to 100 units, strip-search people at my custody level. He decided, due to the complaints, to change where they just pat-search us, or they would just feel us for contraband, which eliminated the “meat show.” It eliminated the repeated trauma to get naked in front of people.
I only was able to do that because of Casper [of A.B.O. Comix]. By myself, from within the system, I would have had no power to change anything, because most of the time we’re ignored in here. We have a paperwork system that we can complain, but we’re complaining to the same system that we’re saying is wrong.
It’s almost impossible to get change. But Casper was able to make complaints out there in the free world, was able to start a petition at change.com. Casper was able to help me. That’s not the only time. Casper has helped me multiple times all throughout my life when I needed it. I’ll turn to Casper, I’ll turn to A.B.O., when I need help. And I know that I might not have anyone else in my life, I know they’ll help me. I know that I’m not alone.
