[News] [IL, USA] Special panel to decide where to house transgender convict
Stephanie Stevens
Special panel to decide where to house transgender convict
Prisoner who identifies as a woman facing 4 years in prison
By Brian L. Cox, Special to the Tribune
January 19, 2012
[Photo: <http://trib.in/wCpoqk> Maribel Torres is identified in court
records as Jose Torres. A special panel will decide where Torres will
serve a prison sentence. (HANDOUT / January 18, 2012) ]
A gender identity committee will decide where a transgender woman with
an extensive criminal record will be housed after she was sentenced
this week to four years in prison on felony retail theft, battery and
violation of probation charges, authorities said.
Maribel Torres, identified in court records as Jose Torres, was
sentenced Tuesday at the Skokie courthouse to four years in the
Illinois Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to incidents
in the women's departments of stores in Skokie and Deerfield.
"She seems like she's headed in the right direction to me," said Cook
County Assistant Public Defender Lisa Ottenfeld, who represented
Torres during the hearing before Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy
Chambers. "She's come to terms with a lot of her issues."
Torres, 41, of Chicago, who has shoulder-length brown hair, was born a
male. But for more than 10 years Torres has identified as a woman,
undergoing hormone treatments to enhance her female appearance,
authorities said.
Transgender prisoners have long presented challenges for the Cook
County Sheriff's Department and the Illinois Department of
Corrections, according to a sheriff's department spokesman. Last March
the state Department of Corrections modified its policy on transgender
prisoners.
The policy notes that the department's goal is to provide a safe and
secure environment for all inmates who identify themselves as
transgender, or who are identified by Cermak Health Services of Cook
County as having gender identity disorder. Cermak is the health care
provider for county's Department of Corrections.
Transgender prisoners can ask to be placed in the male or female
section of a prison, according to the policy, but the final decision
is made by a gender identity committee of medical staff and
representatives from the Sheriff's Department and Department of
Corrections.
Torres was housed in the male section of the Cook County Jail after
her arrest last year, but was moved to a special unit in the jail
where she received drug and counseling services, Ottenfeld said.
Torres has 10 previous felony convictions. On Tuesday she pleaded
guilty to stealing a $2,000 Burberry handbag from a Skokie Nordstrom
store in 2008, and knocking down a store security worker who tried to
stop her, Ottenfeld said.
Torres also pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1,000 worth of
cosmetics from a Deerfield store in 2009.
She was sentenced to three years in prison on each of the theft
charges and three years in prison on an aggravated battery charge,
with the sentences to run concurrently. She was also sentenced to an
additional year in prison for violating her parole on a previous
conviction.
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-transgender-jail-0119-20120119,0,472445.story