This is the second of three stories that chronicles the stories of transgender women who say they were abused by the prison system, as well as difficulties they face when reentering society. But some women have overcome these obstacles. Read more about their successes, and other proposed solutions in a second story in this series.
Content Warning: This story mentions suicide and sexual assault.
Reentering society after incarceration is hard for nearly every prisoner. Black transgender women say they face even steeper hurdles.
Mohagany Foster, 47, is one of them. She spent 18 years in and out of state prisons, stealing, she says, just to survive.
Toyia Dockery, a 40-year-old trans woman who was in and out of prison for 16 years, says she fell into a similar cycle — getting released, stealing for money for food or clothes, then being re-incarcerated.
"If I could rewind and watch my life," Foster said, she would see that cycle recur “every time I got out of prison." One recent study found that as many as one-third of formerly incarcerated North Carolinians will be back behind bars by the end of their first two years of freedom.
"You go into survival mode," Dockery said. "People don't understand it."
Homeless shelters and reentry houses presented their own challenges. Facilities for men can be dangerous for trans women and leave them vulnerable to sexual abuse. A 2011 survey from the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 25% of trans women in homeless shelters had been sexually assaulted during their stay.
Women's facilities, on the other hand, might make arbitrary, "vibes-based" assessments on whether a trans woman passes enough to be allowed entry, according to Foster. Once in, she says she experienced discrimination and feared being falsely accused of assault.
It led her to deciding, "To keep my mental sanity to a certain level, I'm not going to go to these places … I just don't have that fight in me anymore. So I'm gonna sleep outside," she said.
Dockery and Foster were able to reenter to some stability in 2022 and 2024, respectively. Dockery achieved newfound support from her mother and Foster received aid from her community.
But even with community support, the struggle was not over.
Out of prison, but having nothing
"You go through a dark, dark place as you release," Dockery said. "You go through an even darker place than prison, because you come home and you don't have anything, so you have to start from the bare minimum again, on top of trying to adjust with society." A society, she added, that discriminates against and "belittles" trans women.
She's not alone. Aaliyah Straite, 37, who did 15 consecutive years in N.C. prisons, said she also felt "smacked" by society when she reentered, having "no family or anybody to support me."
Both women attempted suicide in the weeks following their final release. They say they did not receive the mental health support they needed.
"Each time I have gotten out before, I just did not have those systems in place to where I felt like they were catering to my specific need as a Black trans woman, as a person who has been caught in this snowball effect of incarceration," she said.
Black trans women are vulnerable to violence and layoffs, and they face "a lot of rejection" on reentry, Dockery says. They might be denied housing or a job for being trans, or for being Black, or for being a woman, or for having a criminal record, or for any combination of those.
In other words: Before they leave the prison gates, they already have four "strikes" against them, Dockery says.
'Left Out Here to Rot'
On Jan. 29, 2024, former Governor Roy Cooper issued an executive order to overhaul North Carolina's prisoner reentry system by 2030. The initiative, which Governor Josh Stein has continued, aims to improve the economic mobility, health care, housing, and overall reintegration of the state's formerly incarcerated residents.
The plan lists 133 strategies to accomplish its goals, including a recently-released study that highlighted multiple systemic problems in the state's approach to reentry and ways to tackle them.
The impact has been tangible.
While Dockery was released before the plan's enactment, both Foster and Straite benefited from its program that helps submit applications for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly known as food stamps) for near-to-release prisoners.
Before 2024, Foster said, the prisons "just gave you the information and just expected you to go to social services and do it yourself." Straite said that she got Medicaid support immediately upon release, though for the SNAP aid, "I had to wait," she said. "At least about a month."
While a good start, the Reentry 2030 plan has some omissions.
For example, the plan does not mention transgender people or Black trans women. N.C. Department of Adult Corrections spokesman Keith Acree said that's because the program is meant to be a "common solution" to benefit all communities in the state, regardless of identity.
However, the plan does note the disparity in homelessness faced by Black North Carolinians. Black residents make up 50% of the state's unhoused population despite being just 22% of the state's overall population.
Dockery added that while cisgender people have environments like reentry houses where they can reintegrate with others like them, transgender women in the state don't have anything specifically for them. Halfway houses, in addition to providing a place to stay, often help former prisoners get jobs or vital government IDs. There have been reentry houses just for trans women in cities like Atlanta, but there are currently none in North Carolina.
"A transgender woman is just left out here to rot," Dockery said. "Like we don't exist."
However, some success stories do exist. With support and a little stability, some transgender women are able to find careers after they leave prison. That includes Foster, who founded Durham-based Mohagany's Mission with the goal of helping transgender women after they leave prison.
Read more about her story in part three of this series, which will publish Friday.
