Kamala Harris made an odd choice picking Walz as her running mate. He’s been dragging her down.
And now what he did to women in his home state of Minnesota just got exposed.
Prison Educator Resigns in Protest Over Transgender Inmates at Minnesota Women’s Prison
Alicia Beckmann, a longtime educator at Minnesota’s only women’s prison, has resigned in protest following the admission of transgender-identifying male inmates into the facility. This policy, approved by Governor Tim Walz, has raised concerns among the female residents, who fear for their safety.
Beckmann left her position at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee just before her tenth anniversary. In an interview with the Independent Women’s Forum for their video series, *Cruel and Unusual Punishment*, she recounted her distressing experience of teaching a male offender in her classroom. Beckmann had been dedicated to providing high school-equivalency classes specifically designed for female inmates, many of whom had suffered emotional and s*xual abuse at the hands of male partners.
The situation escalated when a transgender male inmate in her class threatened security staff and was subsequently placed in segregation. Beckmann expressed that her female students felt retraumatized by the presence of male inmates. “The women are scared to speak up,” she explained. “Many women are incarcerated because of the men they spend their time with, and we all have freedom of choice, but I guarantee that probably 75 percent of our population committed a crime because there was violence against them by a man, or they felt coerced into doing something for that man.”
Despite her objections to the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) and her teachers’ union, Beckmann felt unsupported and feared retaliation if she refused to teach the male inmate. “It’s not that I wanted to refuse education,” she said. “Education is important, and if [the male inmate] was in a male facility or was even in the community where co-ed is normal, I would have zero issues. But we are not a co-ed facility. We are not designed to be a co-ed facility. And there’s a reason for it.”
The Shakopee prison, like several formerly women-only institutions across the country, has begun accepting transgender male inmates. Christina Lusk and Bradley Sirvio were among the first to be housed there after Lusk filed a successful discrimination lawsuit against the DOC. Represented by the nonprofit Gender Justice, Lusk’s legal victory resulted in the settlement that allowed for his housing in Shakopee and the provision of gender-affirming surgeries funded by taxpayers.
Under Governor Tim Walz, the DOC and the Minnesota Department of Education allocated $448,904 to Gender Justice, as reported by the taxpayer watchdog group OpenTheBooks. This funding has sparked significant debate regarding the administration’s commitment to transgender health care standards, particularly given concerns about the experimental nature of such treatments for minors, as acknowledged by members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
The administration’s radical policy, “Management and Placement of Incarcerated People Who Are Transgender, Gender Diverse, Inters*x, or Nonbinary,” allowed additional male inmates, including convicted murderers, to transfer to the Shakopee facility based solely on their self-identified gender.
Beckmann argued that the DOC’s decision disrupted the recovery environment for vulnerable female inmates. She noted that correctional staff received little to no training regarding the new policy and described the atmosphere among her colleagues as one of disbelief. “Ninety-nine percent of the staff I talked to [about the presence of male inmates] were just in disbelief,” she stated.
Many staff members felt they had to ignore the situation to avoid job-related consequences. Beckmann emphasized that the prison operates under a strict chain of command, where failing to adhere to directives could be interpreted as insubordination.
She questioned the contradiction inherent in the DOC’s mission to rehabilitate offenders while placing male inmates in close proximity to female inmates. “Why do we have gender-responsive classes?” she asked. “Why do we say we are going to rehabilitate inmates, but then ‘Hey, we’re going to put a male s*x offender who committed violent s*xual crimes against females down the hall from you?’”
In response to Beckmann’s concerns, the DOC stated that its transgender housing policy was developed after a thorough analysis of emerging legal cases affecting corrections agencies across the country. The department also denied claims that correctional staff lacked training on the policy.
“This policy was single-handedly asking my coworkers and me to check our morals at the door and pretend that this was okay,” Beckmann concluded. “As a teacher, I could no longer offer a safe environment for my students, so I knew I no longer had a choice to stay.”
Prudent Politics will keep you updated on any updates to this ongoing story.
