Warning: There is discussion of sexual assault and anatomy in this story, which may not be suitable for younger audiences.
I’m getting a call from someone I know very well, having spent time with her behind bars myself, though she looked very different then. She’s been there for over 30 years because of a murder conviction.
Riicara Janel Dior is a transgender woman currently serving time at the Grafton Correctional Institution — a men’s prison in Lorain County. We talked on the phone because the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections denied our request to speak in person, citing safety concerns.
Starting in 2011, Dior began presenting as a woman full-time behind bars. In 2020, following a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, ODRC began providing her with female hormones.
A transgender woman in a men's prison
But there was an issue. She was now a transgender woman in a men’s facility.
“I'm a woman," Dior said. "I'm real demure, ladylike. I'm a girl's girl, so I want to be acknowledged as that.”
In 2023, she requested to be transferred to the Ohio Reformatory for Women. ODRC formally denied that request and continued to deny it after the state changed her birth certificate to “female” in January 2024.
A few months later, she alleged she was raped by a male inmate. ODRC responded by ordering her to be placed in a single cell, with no other incarcerated people allowed inside.
"There's no way possible you can keep a woman safe in a man's prison," Dior said. "That's just not even logical."
She filed unsuccessful lawsuits trying to get prison officials to move her, followed by an additional suit in March 2025 within federal court against correctional officials, including ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith.
State prison officials would not agree to an interview for this story, but in records provided to the court, prison officials said despite the official name change, they are not compelled by law to change the gender status of an inmate in prison.
The officials also expressed concern about the possibility of moving Dior to a woman’s facility.
"I'm suffering here," Dior said. "You don't have no programming for me. You don't have no structured activities for me. Ain't no social activities here for me because there are no other women here."
Her case is pending with the Ohio Supreme Court.
Dangerous and harmful
There has been at least one documented case of a transgender woman being moved to a women's prison in Ohio, but that's rare.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 99% of incarcerated trans women are incarcerated in men’s facilities across the country.
“They kept me here, in a man's prison, knowing it would increase or jeopardize my safety," Dior said.
Many lawmakers and others that oppose transgender women in female prisons are concerned that doing so would be dangerous and harmful for the women already housed at those facilities.
Concern for safety
Dr. Jennifer Aldrich, a physician with Philadelphia’s Temple Health, treats incarcerated LGBTQ+ patients. She said many prison officials are concerned about mixing trans women with women who were born female.
"I think everybody, all of these officials are concerned that somehow these trans women are going to sexually assault cisgender women," Aldrich said.
In 2023, Dr. Aldrich and two others researchers published a research paper in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics on treatment of transgender individuals behind bars.
She said medically, trans women have suppressed testosterone which not only reduces libido but makes it difficult to achieve an erection.
"And just like cis women, trans women have a variety of sexual orientations," Aldrich said. "But many are straight, which means they have sex with people who identify as men. So I think it's a very overblown theory that this would happen. I think that it's an excuse."
External oversight
We reached out to members of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee of Ohio, a bipartisan board of state senators and representatives responsible for providing external oversight for Ohio's correctional facilities, and all but one denied our requests for comment at this time.
Dani Isaacsohn, Ohio House Minority Leader and a committee member whose district is in the Cincinnati area, said in an email statement that he will be "looking into the detainment of this woman… as well as the broader treatment of LGBTQ+ folks in these facilities."
As Dior waits for the federal court’s ruling, she said she hopes things will change for people like her.
"Approving to have my gender marker changed, then leaving me in a man's prison... people got to be held accountable for that," she said.
