The Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) has declined to say how many male inmates are housed at MCI-Framingham, the state's only state-run prison for women, according to the Boston Herald.
The DOC's response
The Herald reported on Oct. 13 that the DOC did not provide the number "despite multiple requests." A spokesperson said the facility is for "female offenders" and that "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 the number is at least 18. A City Journal article in April put it at "at least 11." The DOC has not confirmed either figure.
Inmates on the public record
- Kenneth Hunt, now known as Katheena Soneeya, was convicted in 1982 of murdering two women and is serving life without parole, according to the Herald. On Feb. 12, 2024, U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock ordered the DOC to transfer Soneeya to MCI-Framingham as a predicate to possible sex-reassignment surgery.
- Charles Horton, now known as Charlese Horton, a Level 3 sex offender, was sentenced in June 2025 to 25 to 35 years for twice kidnapping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint and assaulting him, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. Horton pleaded guilty in 2000 to sexual assault and kidnapping of a child under 14. The Herald reports Horton is held at Framingham.
Allegations
Commentary published in The Hill in January and in City Journal in April, based on interviews with inmates, reported allegations that a female inmate was raped by a trans-identified male inmate in November 2025 and was later placed in restrictive housing, and that women share communal showers with male inmates. The Daily Mail reported the allegations. They have not been tested in court, and no charges have been reported. City Journal said MCI-Framingham did not respond to its request for comment.
What the law says
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 127, Section 32A, enacted in the 2018 criminal justice reform law, provides that an inmate whose gender identity differs from his or her sex, "with or without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria," shall be:
- addressed consistent with that gender identity;
- given access to clothing, commissary items and programming consistent with that identity;
- strip-searched by an officer of the gender identity the inmate requests; and
- housed with inmates of the same gender identity, consistent with the inmate's request.
The placement can be denied only if the commissioner, sheriff or a designee certifies in writing that it "would not ensure the prisoner's health or safety" or "would present management or security problems."
Federal investigations elsewhere
On March 26, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department notified California and Maine of investigations into whether housing males in women's prisons violates female inmates' constitutional rights. Massachusetts is not part of those investigations.
*Cover photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)*