Transgender woman reaches settlement with NSW corrective services over her treatment in prison
Melissa Yarnold was entered into the court system under her former name. (Supplied)
In short:
A transgender woman has settled a discrimination case against NSW corrective services and police after she was held in a men's prison for weeks.
Melissa Yarnold was denied sufficient access to hormone therapy and was misgendered during her time in custody.
Ms Yarnold is telling her story to ensure trans and gender diverse people are treated with respect by the NSW legal and justice system.
A transgender woman has settled a discrimination case against NSW corrective services and police after she was held in a men's prison for weeks and says she was denied sufficient access to hormone therapy.
Melissa Yarnold reached a confidential settlement with state government agencies after a lengthy battle in the Australian Human Rights Commission over her time in custody in 2020, which she described as "hell on Earth".
Warning: This article contains discussion of transphobia and sexual harassment.
Ms Yarnold told her story to ABC News to advocate for the NSW legal and justice system to be safer for trans and gender diverse people.
"Nobody should have to go through what I went through," she said.
"When I went into the prison intake system, they yelled at me and told me I was a man."
Ms Yarnold said she legally changed her name on her birth certificate in 2016 before changing her driver's licence and Medicare card shortly after.
She was arrested and charged by NSW Police in 2020 following a family dispute, when she said she repeatedly asked the officers to use her correct pronouns and legal name.
Despite having legally changed her name four years earlier, she said police refused.
According to documents seen by ABC News, Ms Yarnold was entered into the court system under her former name.
She said she was initially held in isolation at a women's prison before being transferred to a men's prison, where she spent more than five weeks awaiting trial.
Ms Yarnold was left feeling "scared" following what she experienced. (Supplied)
Her new inmate form, filled out by a corrective services officer, used Ms Yarnold's former name, labelled her "male" and included a handwritten note that referred to her as a "cross dresser".
Another handwritten note said: "Very vocal on being female."
'I was so scared'
Ms Yarnold said she was treated like she "had no right to be a woman".
"I didn't feel like I had the right to say my name was Melissa Yarnold even though that was my legal name," she said.
"They told me they'd do whatever they wanted and I'd do whatever they say … I was so scared."
She said corrections staff "humiliated" her, used transphobic language and put her former name on her cell, while other inmates sexually harassed and intimidated her.
"Then it was just constant, full-on abuse from the inmates who were carrying on the intimidation they'd heard from the officers, abusing me in a few cases and threatening me 24/7," she said.
"I went into full-on survival mode where it didn't matter what they were doing to me … I had no feelings."
Ms Yarnold said she was repeatedly denied access to women's clothing and only given sporadic access to hormone therapy, which she had previously been taking for four years.
She was eventually transferred to a psychiatric hospital after her mental health deteriorated, before being granted bail.
She was ultimately released with no conviction, subject to a mental health plan.
'Failed' by criminal justice system
Ms Yarnold then lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission, represented by the Justice and Equity Centre, claiming her rights had been violated during her time in custody.
Justice and Equity Centre CEO Jonathon Hunyor said the criminal justice system "failed" Ms Yarnold.
"Under Australian law, a person shouldn't be subjected to sexual harassment or discrimination because of their gender, including when they are dealing with the criminal legal system," Mr Hunyor said.
"There is also a formal policy requiring corrections staff to deal with people in custody in line with their identified gender.
"This includes in relation to where they are accommodated, how they are searched and the clothes they are given."
Mr Hunyor described what Ms Yarnold experienced as "discriminatory treatment". (Supplied)
Mr Hunyor said both corrective services and police had violated their own policies.
According to a document available on the Corrective Services NSW website, "a person received into NSW custody must be managed as the gender with which they identify at the time of their incarceration".
"Melissa suffered immense distress and harm because police and corrections staff breached their own policies and failed to respond to her legitimate requests that they recognise her gender and use her legal name," he said.
"By deliberately misgendering and deadnaming her, [police] set off cascading discriminatory treatment based on her gender."
Calls for 'cultural shift'
Ms Yarnold said she wanted her case to be a catalyst for change.
"Trans people have a right to be seen as their real gender, but that wasn't accepted," she said.
"Bigotry, discrimination and misunderstanding fuelled the police, and I was made to feel completely powerless."
Mr Hunyor said the system needed a "cultural shift" to ensure trans and gender diverse people were treated with respect.
"There's still a gap between the written policies of an organisation and the culture and that cultural shift is what we'd really like to see," he said.
"That means training so that police and corrections are applying their policies and not treating people in a way that is discriminatory."
Both NSW Police and Corrective Services NSW refused to comment on Ms Yarnold's case.
A statement from a corrective services spokesman said "management and placement of transgender inmates is guided by established policy and procedure and assessed by CSNSW on a case-by-case basis".
"CSNSW maintains a balance between ensuring the safety and security of its prisons and meeting the often-complex requirements of individual inmates," the statement said.