[captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! there were since 2004 until the end of 2015 848 priests who were dismissed from the clerical status and reduce to the lay status. several hundred more had received other types of benefits.

>> as the vatican testifies against the u.n. committee of torture in geneva about sexual abuse in the church, we speak with barbara blaine, founder of the survivors network of those abused by priests. then me will speak to kathryn joyce, author of "by grave alone: as sex-abuse allegations multiply, billy graham's grandson is on a mission to persuade protestant churches to come clean." he is uniquely positioned to go in and do investigations into sexual abuse at schools and missionary groups because they have impeccable credentials. come from aould not more storyline of evangelicals. >> then we will go to connecticut where 16-year-old transgender girl has spent the last few months locked up in

solitary confinement without any criminal charges. we'll find out why. all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. by the book boko haram has left several hundred people dead. residents and local officials say dozens of boko haram gunman attacked the northeast town on monday. at least 336 people were killed and hundreds of homes and vehicles set on fire. bodies were still lying in the street two days later. the town sits on the cameroon border and was targeted because some residents were assisting the nigerian army. attack comes amidst global outcry of the book boko haram's kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in the same region. --wednesday, protests cap continued in the capital of abuja and called on the

government to step up efforts to find the girls. >> i wish they can do more. maybe it is something that is beyond their control. praying, i wish, i am asking them, please try more. let them out of those monsters. i am so angry. they are just women. it is too much for a mother to go through. >> nigerian police have offered a $300,000 reward for information leading to the girls rescue. boko haram threatened to sell the girls into cap did the. boko haram sees another 10 girls at another kidnapping on sunday. outside of the nigerian consulate in washington, d.c.,

sheila jackson-lee addressed reports that the girls have been sold off for as little as $12. mothers, anguished as grandmothers, and lovers of children, that this is what the children, the girls in nigeria are going through. our first demand is to use all resources to bring the terrorist thugs to justice. tweeted ae obama has picture showing the first lady holding a sign that says bring back our girls. russian president vladimir putin has called on separatists to delay a referendum on breaking off from ukraine. areas in eastern ukraine occupied by pro-russian forces are set to vote this sunday on whether to seek autonomy amidst continued violence over the past week, putin called on the separatists to postpone the vote. we call on the

representatives of south eastern ukraine, the supporters of the federalization of the country, to postpone the referendum planned for may 11 of this year. meanwhile, a necessary condition for the start of this dialogue is the unconditional stopping of any violence. both the use of military force is absolutely unacceptable in the usern world, as is of armed illegal units, extremist units and forces. has orderedaid he russian forces to pull back from the ukrainian border. earlier today the coordinating committee of the so-called donetsk people's republic rejected the call, saying the vote will go ahead. cuba has arrested four miami-based exiles on allegations of plotting antigovernment attacks. the cuban interior ministry says the suspects were planning violence against military installations with the goal of fomenting antigovernment unrest.

cuba also says the four have ties to a cuban exile and former cia operative behind a 1976 cuban airlines bombing that killed 76 people. he currently lives in miami after beating charges of immigration fraud in 2011. cuba says they plan to contact the state department about the new arrests. the house has advanced a measure that would curb the collection of phone records by the nsa. the usa freedom act would limit the nsa's powers to collect phone records on a mass scale although not entirely. it is co-authored by republican robbers member jim sensenbrenner , co-author of the patriot act. the house judiciary committee sent the bill to the house floor with a unanimous bipartisan vote . it is the first surveillance reform measure to make it out of committee to the house floor.

federal regulators have tightened the rules for trains carrying crude oil following a spate of accidents and spills. citing an imminent public hazard, the department of transportation says railroads will be required to notify local emergency responders when crude shipments pass through their states. railroads previously had no such obligations. a train derailment in virginia last week forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and spilled oil into the james river. it was the second oil train accident by the company cfx this year, and the sixth overall in north america since a derailment that killed 47 people in québec last july. protesters have set up camp outside the federal communications commission in washington, d.c. to protest new rules that would effectively abandon net neutrality, the concept of a free and open internet. the fcc announced last month

lands to let internet providers charge media companies extra fees to receive preferential treatment such as faster speeds for their products and content. under previous regulations struck down earlier this year, providers were forced to provide , andontent at equal speed steps from the fcc, demonstrators have set up tents and banners reading save the internet. they plan toy remain until the fcc holds a public hearing next week. federal regulators to reclassify broadband service as a public utility, which would allow for the requirement of net neutrality rules. fast food workers have announced a global day of action to push for higher wages and improved workplace rights. the workers will stage a one-day strike at fast food franchises in 33 countries, six continents, one week from today. it is the latest phase in a

movement that began with u.s. for as staging actions $15 minimum wage in 2012. the campaign has received heavy backing from the service employees international union. a major d.c. law firm has dropped out of a lawsuit against the oil giant chevron for pollution in ecuador's amazon rain forest. patton boggs had held represent a group of indigenous plaintiffs who one t $9 million judgment in 2011 for widespread contamination resulting from toxic dumping from texaco, which chevron later bought, but chevron sued the victims and their attorney, accusing them of bribing the judge in the case and presenting fraudulent evidence. in marchon the sued with a federal judge barred collection of their judgment in the united states. on wednesday, patton boggs withdrew from the case after chevron threatened legal action over the firm's role in the

amazonian case. patton boggs has also agreed to pay chevron $15 million. bloomberg businessweek reports the firm's retreat is highly unusual and possibly unprecedented. it could be linked to patton boggs current effort to merge with a larger firm amidst a series of financial woes. has arrested an fbi agent on charges of trying to bring weapons onto a civilian passenger plane. joel cox reportedly tried to board a flight carrying bullets and a knife in his luggage. revived memories of raymond davis, the cia agent who shot dead two people in pakistan in 2011. davis was released after compensation was paid to the victims families. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >> i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to our viewers and listeners around the country and

world. even committee on torture question the vatican this week over its handling of sexual abuse inside catholic church. the hearing came just four months after under the human body, the committee on rights of child, accused the vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of abuse in attempting to cover up sex crimes. during this week's hearing, harshness of zola tomasi revealed that the church ever -- removed 848 priests over the past decade. since 2004 until 2013, 848 priests were dismissed from the clerical status and reduced to the lay status. several hundred more had received other types of penalties. together, they are about 3500 priests. churchent on to say the

has been addressing the crisis in a systematic and effective way over the past decade. involves, and it so does the church in a lot of ways. the culture of society that has affected the church changes, and .ow we are in a new moment if you look at the facts in a fair way, you see a lot of measures have been taken by indeed, arees that, are effectiveand in the work of prevention of sexual abuse with minors, in , and renewed attention to the victims of past abuses. survivorsr of attended this week's hearing,

including our first guest, barbara blaine, founder and president of snap, survivors network of those abused by priests. she joins us now by video. we are also joined by catherine gallagher from the constitution -- center for constitutional rights. begin withine, let's you. what is the result of the hearings, and do you find that the vatican has done adequate? >> it seems as if vatican officials continue to split hairs and try to dodge responsibility. they claim to not have the authority to stop the sexual violence and we are convinced that they do and they are making lofty statement but they are not taking action that would protect children. that theyumbers revealed, two point $5 billion which has been paid in

compensation, 800 priests. could you respond to that? >> it is really important to recognize that numbers are not going to protect children. say, what are the names of these individual predators, and where are they today? that kind of information is what would protect children. we continue to receive reports that sexual predators remain in ministry. we think pope francis and the vatican should immediately remove all the sexual predators, and we think that they should be punishing the bishops who have transferred these predators and enabled them. >> can you talk about how widespread the problem is? the number of priests they have expelled, punished, and the number of people you think are involved? knowing is no way of

completely. the own church officials will admit to approximately 100,000 the ones in the united states alone, but we believe there are many more, and our concern is that we keep hearing reports that priests who have been , allegedly from ministry, keep turning up, working in a new location. so we are not confident that children are not at risk. in fact, we believe there are children and vulnerable adults who are being raped and sodomized even today. barbara, can you tell us your own story, why did you found snap, what happened to you? >> growing up in toledo, ohio, growing up, the priest began to sexually abuse me. i did not tell anyone until i was well into adulthood.

i assumed it was my fault and also felt helpless to stop it. mywas not until i was in 30's before i really went back to the church officials and tried to confront and face this. when they did not help me, i started looking for other victims, and this was the 1980's. there was a self-help group for everyone then, so we had a. that we would find each other and figure out how to find healing. unfortunately, what we learned is that many of our perpetrators were still in ministry and the ,hurch officials had duped as promising us that the perpetrators would be removed from ministry when that is not what happened. >> catherine gallagher, this is a scandal that has been exposed for decades, and it continues to grow in size.

the significance of the united nations committee on torture taking up the issue on the world scale? >> we consider what happened this week quite historic. as you indicated, the second time this year that a u.n. body has, vatican to account for its actions and bringing it to the international level is really the appropriate place, as barbara pointed out, this is a global problem, and it requires a global response. snap has heard from victims from 79 countries. for far too long, these acts have been called sexual abuse or inappropriate touching. the actions have been minimized. what we are hoping comes out of the committee against torture is recognizing these ask for what they are, international crimes, torture, to cruel and degrading treatment, and in doing so,, dates what has been done to the victims, the profound harm, as well as carries with it some of the legal triggers of

recognizing torture, in terms of national prosecutions or international actions. possible because the vatican only recently signed the convention on torture is. >> the vatican signed the convention 12 years ago. as most countries report every three or four years, the vatican was nine years late in putting in its first report. snap and the center for constitutional rights went to the international criminal court in 2011, and since that time, we have seen international focus a realthis issue and recharacterization of the problem as isolated two different countries, or again, just sexual abuse, and recognizing it for the global crime that it is and the roles of the higher ups in the vatican who are enabling these crimes. >> what does it mean that the holy see's position about adherence, applying only to the

territory of vatican city? >> this is something that we heard from the vatican press, talking about the rights of a child. signed ontohad these treaties, but it is really only that small territory in rome that the obligations apply to. both committees pressed back on that and said no. anywhere where the vatican has effective control over high-level officials such as bishops and cardinals, where the policies and practices of the vatican can be carried out, and unfortunately what we've seen so far is that policies have been to cover up these crimes, to instruct justice, to encourage andecy and confidentiality hopefully what we will see now thatear instructions anywhere where you have effective control over church withials, they must comply

national reporting authorities, must turn over suspected priest to have engaged in acts of rape and sexual violence and really put an end to the crimes. the group that attended the hearing defended the church saying that the church is no a safe place for children. ashley maguire serves on the board of cap the voices usa. it has become one of the safest places for children in the world, certainly a source of sadness what happened with the sexual abuse crisis, but we are in a different era now. only that, but the church is doing important work on the front lines defending and helping children, women in difficult situations. it would actually in danger then , where this committee to lebanon essentially a sponsor of torture. barbara blaine, your response? >> that is just not true.

the evidence shows -- she cannot and has not shown even one bishop who has been punished for covering up these crimes and allowing these predators to remain in ministry. if pope francis were sincere, if he wanted to protect children, we believe he would punish the benefits -- bishops. right now, there is a bishop in kansas city who has been found guilty of endangering children and he is still the bishop. so when the catholic church that they have cleaned everything up, we keep saying, where is the evidence of that? we are not finding it, and in fact, we are finding the opposite. it was only a couple years ago that a grand jury report from indicated that they had found 37 accused predators

working in ministry within the archdiocese of philadelphia. that is one of the questions that the committee put to the vatican officials. as far as i heard, i did not hear any response to that question and they asked specific west and, for example, how a priest, an indian national who had abused children in a diocese in northern minnesota, and he is still facing extradition and has not returned to face the charges in minnesota. church officials have been assisting him in his role as a fugitive and not insisting that he returned to face the charges. >> barbara, what do you recommend as a survivor yourself? deal, parents and kids who go to church, to protect themselves?

>> it is important that parents remain vigilant. in so many situations, nobody wants to believe that someone that we revere and respect, someone who is close to god, would actually sexually violate someone. by all means, most priests do not do this, but an alarming , arch -- church officials bishop tomasi admitted about four percent. the statistics coming out from the u.s. conference of bishops would indicate that it is probably a little over five percent. still, it is important that they remain vigilant. i think it is really important that pope francis stop having all of these lofty words, setting up a commission to study. we do not need studies. everyone knows that sexually violating a child is a crime, and those things should be

turned over to the police and not investigated in the church. we should stop coddling and protecting the predators. >> katherine gallagher, i wanted to raise a question about the failures of law enforcement in so many of these countries, pursuing what is in effect, crimes. the local archbishop in any community is a major figure, a powerful figure in a particular locality. yet, time and again, the authorities have not really gone after, in a systematic way, this scandal and these abuses. is true. we have seen that slightly change in some jurisdictions in the u.s., and i would have to give credit to snap and other survivors who have really issuet this attention -- to the attention of district attorneys and have put for prosecutions. in khartoum any places around the world, particularly latin

america, asia, africa, where we do not hear as many cases, it is not because there is no problem, but we do not have the investigations going on, prosecutions and the national commission. would call on national law enforcement to be much more vigilant and aggressive in investigating and prosecuting these cases and to not bow to the pressures of putting forward what may be seen as unpopular cases in some areas. link to your report that you prepared for the human committee on torture. what most surprised you in the findings? among then you talk about suicide. >> the acts of torture documented in our report was covered by megan peterson, a survivor. torturentioning harm.es severe mental we talk about survivors, but

there are many people who have not survived these horrific acts . in australia, they just found 40 cases of suicide because you lose your family in many cases, your friends, your community, the isolation and guilt. this leads far too many people to take their own lives. the church often refers to these as crimes of the past. we met with a survivor in switzerland who himself was assaulted when he was preteen. his eight-year-old sister came home from school in the 1970's reporting that she had been raped. just last year she took her own life after decades of trying to battle the problem, living with it and the long-standing harm. so it is really devastating and we are glad that the committee against torture is looking at this with the seriousness it needs. >> catherine gallagher, thank you for being with us from the center for constitutional rights, serving as counsel for

snap. barbara blaine, thank you for joining us from prague. theident and founder of survivors network of those abused by priests. when we come back, we will look at a different aspect of this issue. "by grave alone: as sex-abuse allegations multiply, billy graham's grandson is on a mission to persuade protestant churches to come clean." stay with us.

to a new exposé that asks that the protestant world is teetering on the edge of a sox abuse scandal similar to the one that has rocked the catholic church. the person trying to address the problem may surprise you, as six allegations multiply, it is billy graham's grandson, who is on a mission to persuade western churches to come clean. the cover story by kathryn joyce law professor at liberty university, a school founded by jerry falwell, and former prosecutor who worked on many sex abuse cases. he used his experience to found an organization called grace, gabi response to abuse in the christian environment. when themade headlines famous evangelical school, bob

jones university, hired it to interview faculty and students about their experiences with sexual assault, and then fired him before that they had a chance to reveal the reports. kathryn joyce joins us now to discuss the major exposé. "by grace alone: as sex-abuse allegations multiply, billy graham's grandson is on a mission to persuade protestant churches to come clean." kathryn joyce is also the author catchers."ld welcome to democracy now! beginning where you began your piece. >> in 2012, there was some pretty remarkable news that came out of bob jones university, which for decades, has been the flagship school of fundamentalism in the country. in a lot of ways, bob jones is more than a school. it is the center of a nationwide

network where affiliated churches, theaters schools -- they ran a curriculum business, a music publisher, it was really just a foundational institution in the most extreme conservative christianity that we have schools or in the country. in 2012, they announced they were hiring this organization, grace, to come in and do an assessment of how they have handled allegations of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment that have happened on their campus. it was surprising not just because bob jones has been such a remarkably insular institution with people being born at the hospital on campus and living their entire lives within this total institution, but because they were reaching out to billy graham's grandson. hady graham and bob jones an historic falling out that

really led to the schism that we see today between evangelicalism and fundamentalism. >> tell us who tina anderson is. tina anderson was a 15-year-old church member of a fundamentalist church in new hampshire. 15 years ago she was raped by her church and he can for whom she babysat. she became pregnant. when she and her mother became -- went to their pastor, a board member of bob jones, rather than going to the police or confronting her rapist, he had her stand before the entire church while he read a confession of her pregnancy and then sent her away out-of-state to deliver her child. for a lot of critics of bob jones, a former alumni who had become dissatisfied with the way the school handled a lot of different things including sexual assault and harassment, this became an emblematic moment, this is how and bob jones deals with rate.

they blame the moment and send her away. this became a galvanizing moment and from there they demanded that grace be hired. hear from tina anderson. abc interviewed her in 2011. she describes what happened after she and her mother reported the rape to phelps. a pastor phelps took me to passage in deuteronomy where it talks about if a girl does not cry out, she was obviously a part of it. he told me that i was lucky i did not live in old testament times because i would have been stoned. >> stoned to death for being raped. >> yes. i think he claimed it was consensual. pastor't matter to phelps that a 15-year-old girl cannot legally give her consent? >> no. >> during the meeting, she was also surprised by a remark that the pastor's wife had made.

>> iyou had enjoyed having sex? in shock that that would cross her mind. >> linda denies saying that, but according to tina, the pastor asked her to write a statement asking the church to forgive her for her transgressions. for allowing the transgression to occur because i had a lead him into my house. >> which brings us back to 1997. hundreds of congregants filled the church. children and teenagers are asked to leave the sanctuary. >> then pastor phelps and we have a matter of church discipline to deal with. >> first bernie williams admits to adultery and then asked for forgiveness. maded then pastor phelps me get up and read my letter, and then told everyone i was pregnant. >> what did it feel like i'm a standing in front of the church having that letter read? >> completely humiliating.

i was sobbing. >> that was tina anderson being interviewed in 2011. her pastor, chuck phelps, went on to become the president, ran andbible baptist college served on the board of trustees of bob jones university, as well as on its missionary and youth camp boards. see the churchwe trying to handle this all internally, protecting the perpetrator and no criminal charges or even exposure beyond the church occurring. >> absolutely. this is the message that grace says that they put out there, that we too often, churches respond to these stories, which to happen in all cultures, secular culture as much as in religious culture, but a lot of times churches respond by circling the troops saying we need to protect the cause of

christ. if we let this get out, this would damage our ability to save souls, so we do keep this quiet. as we can see from the clip, that is horrifying, to put that on a young girl, and make her carry the weight of that puzzle in order to protect the church's reputation. can you talk about what happened with the investigation and then talk about the next investigation of grace, the missionary kids? the bob jones investigation is still ongoing. the report has not been released. what happened was, after a year of doing interviews with more than 100 students and former staff and current staff, bob and just a fewck weeks before grace was finishing its last interviews with staff, bob jones pulled back and sent out of the blue a termination letter to grace saying we are

letting you go, you have done amazing work, but we are terminating you. let's get together and form a new contract. there was no reason given for this. everyone observing this, close to the matter, thought there was only one explanation, which was that grace had found things that bob jones did not want them to find and make public. there was a massive outcry. this was covered everywhere from "thenew york times" to conservativest," were critical, and eventually they hire them back. grace put out a statement of month ago saying that they are finishing up the interviews and beginning to draft their final report. so we should see that in the next couple of months. onyour article also focuses ,he grandson of billy graham

why it is so issue that he has been taking a lead in this. he is a lawyer and he got his start as a criminal sex abuse prosecutor in central florida. while he was there he told me that he noticed this upsetting pattern among his colleagues. a lot of them tended to plea of sex abuse cases quickly as if it was too horrible to dwell on, to take to court. so he eventually asked the district attorney if he could take on those cases and he ended up establishing a sex crimes .nit within the das office they prosecute hundreds of cases over eight years that he was there. to seethat time, he came some additionally troubling patterns with regards to how religion played a role in this. whenever pastors came to court in a supportive role, almost always you noticed they were sitting on the side of the accused, behind the defendant's

table, rather than supporting the victims. he was starting to hear stories from around the country, people calling and asking, saying, i have the situation in my church where some girls were molested, the father went to the pastor, the pastor counseled them that the abuser is very repentant, how about we just haven't get more involved in church life, and will then be repentant enough and we can forgo reporting this to the police? he was starting to see patterns of the absolute wrong reaction to sex abuse and molestation, and rate. >> i want to turn to bob tchividjian, the grandson of billy graham, now the founder of grace, which stands for gabi response to abuse in a christian environment. he spoke at a conference last year about sexual offenders in the christian community. oftentimes, offenders, when

they begin abusing, there comes a point often where the child as they get older starts to say, wait a minute, there is something wrong with us. so the child starts asking thetions, starts to resist, child starts to be more cautious about what is going on. so what you have is, when the child is younger, this is an expression of god's love. when the child starts resisting and asking questions and starts putting up roadblocks, what does the offender do? this is where you see the true heart and deception of the defender. they have been abusing the child and now they take that same truth and distort it to silence the child. you should be ashamed of your sin. distancing from god. because of your sin, god does not care about you but i do. you think of others. this is from the pit of hell, i really believe that.

this is taking god's beautiful truth and using them to eviscerate the sole. ofthat is the grandson reverend billy graham. what did his grandfather say about what he is doing? me he has. to or from members of his family. i did not get a chance to speak with his grandfather, but i understand that all members of his family are supportive. i know his uncle is a controversial character, franklin graham, has hired him to implement some sex abuse awareness and prevention training in his own very large christian relief organization. you cover what is happening at bob jones university, maybe you can expand on the issue of abuse among missionary children, but also what about the

traditional protestant churches, methodists, lutherans, at this cap aliens -- are there any churches that are actively doing what you would consider to be a positive effort to root out this kind of abuse in their ranks? first,he second point, absolutely, there are a lot of churches that are being proactive about this. grace has a hand in that. i got to attend one of their sex abuse prevention trainings, a relatively small church in central bucks county in .ennsylvania the pastor there had made it mandatory for all of his staff and volunteers to come and learn about this. there were hundreds of people attending the training because they are mandated to, and hundreds more came because they were concerned about the issue. i understand that is something that is happening across the board. in the mainline churches, the

methodists and presbyterians, but also the more conservative churches. to give credit where it is due, invention,n baptist the second-largest church after the catholics in this country, passed a resolution last year saying that the domination had to be better about responding to reporting sex abuse. i know one of the conservative presbyterian denominations is doing the same thing later this year. >> and the missionary kids? of thee are the subjects first two investigations by grace. two large missionary groups where the children of the missionaries stationed in foreign countries, known in christian culture as missionary enduringy were epidemic levels of sexual abuse in a number of different countries. the report focused on two in particular, the new transmission and their boarding school in , and whatnd also abwe

happened on the mission field they had in the 1980's in bangladesh. two different situations but a lot of similarities in some ways in that these were very authoritarian atmosphere's where children were expected to do what any adult in their world was telling them to do. this made them, sadly, very vulnerable to abusers. >> and you are talking about the missionary kids. what about the people in the communities they come to, for example, in senegal or bangladesh about what happens to them? >> i am sure there are stories as well. the reports focused on what happened to the children who are missionaries but i'm sure there were even more untold stories about the children who were living there who were in many ways much more vulnerable. >> in some of your writings you write about the issue of

patriarchy and its relationship to religious thinking. any sense on your part that there are structural or philosophical directions in the church that allows this kind of stuff to be covered up? obviously,ly, and not all very conservative christians or all members of the self-described patriarchy movement will be abuses, but reading all of these reports and speaking to dozens of people, it becomes clear, grace's assertion, that a main factor contributing to the abuse and silencing of victims is authoritarian structures that focus much more on rigid rule following, on hierarchies within a church or community, on the subordinate role of women and children. when you have all of these is coming together alongside a culture that sees it as

imperative to cover up its mistakes so that you can still promote the cause of christ, that you are being a good evangelical witness, a lot of these things conspire to make abuse just -- not just more common, but more visible. >> what most surprised you in your investigation? >> i think what surprised me most was watching in real time this pattern of grace started the investigation, getting into it, speaking to hundreds of people, and then having the institution back out. his head had been once before with the mission group abwe, and then again with bob jones. it was interesting to see that and raise the interesting question about whether there was a catch 22 at the heart of grace's admirable mission, that they are being hired by the groups they are investigation. that is an interesting question to ponder but we also have to

look at their work and say that this is very much needed. bob jones university is based in greenville, south carolina. we will continue to follow this. kathryn joyce, thank you for your report. "by grace alone: as sex-abuse allegations multiply, billy graham's grandson is on a mission to persuade protestant churches to come clean." we will link to it online. catherine is also the author of "the child catchers." when we come back, we go to connecticut, to a 16-year-old trans girl. how did she end up in solitary confinement in prison? she had not committed any crime. stay with us.

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>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with juan gonzalez. >> imprisoned in solitary confinement without criminal charges. that is the plight of a 16-year-old transgender girl of color in connecticut known as jane doe. one month ago today a superior court judge ordered her to prison after the connecticut

department of children and families requested a transfer, claiming they could not safely care for her. the move is allowed under a rarely used connecticut statute that allows sending her to prison, citing her alleged history of violent behavior, but in an affidavit to the court, jane doe wrote -- she goes on to detail how she was repeatedly sexually and physically abused him the age from eight to 15 at the hands of relatives and dcf staff, all while under the supervision of dcf. >> she is being held in an adult women's prison in connecticut. last month, she described her experience there, writing --

to talk more about the case, we are joined by aaron romano, jane doe's lawyer. phonespeaking to us by from hartford, connecticut. here with us is a step attorney from the aclu. let's begin with aaron romano. tell us where jane doe is now and what has happened to her? in an adult female facility in connecticut, there is only one in connecticut. because of her status as a juvenile, she has to be separated from any and all adults. she is in virtual isolation from anyone else in that jail. and why is the state claiming

that they have so much problem handling her? >> you cover that a little bit here. she was in dcf supervision from the age of five and sexually abused from the ages of eight through 15. a residentialin treatment facility through dcf supervision, staff members aggressively approached her, placed her in an illegal restraint. that staff member was later discharged for that restraint. she defended herself. after experience actual abuse for close to seven years, a child will have a certain sensitivity to touch or approach and they interpret situations from a defensive aspect of and the statute of been aware. in response, dcf just wanted to pass the buck on so to speak, to the department of corrections, her on the department

of corrections and say, we do not want to take care of her anymore. doe is a trans girl. why would she placed in a male prison? >> she is not in a male prison now, but the original intention of the dcf in a motion, was to place her in a mail ability, in full denigration of her status as a trans female. why they intended to do that, i do not know. their mandate is to act in the best interest of their children. knowing full well she is a transgendered female, to put her in a mail facility would create a condition of, in no certain terms, harm to her. dcf,at about the issue of their responsibility in this case, given that she claims she was abused while under their custody? that is curious because it brings to light some of the issues that affect dcf agencies

across the nation. dcf agencies historically have had difficulty in dealing with children who suffer from sexual abuse, abuse generally. there needs to be more funding for dcf agencies so they can create a safe environment for these children if they have to be removed from their families. as we can see here, there is a lack of facilities available for children like jane. court,ractive into the jane doe details a litany of sexual abuses that took ways under the supervision of dcf, at the hands of relative and staff, starting when she was eight. she wrote --

she goes on to detail multiple other instances of abuse and rape, even working as a sex worker. talk about what has happened to this young transgender woman, now in prison, in solitary. >> unfortunately, what the case shows is part of a larger and systemic problem with both our criminal and civil confinement systems whereby trans people, particularly trans women of color are placed in solitary confinement as a matter of

court. it is almost always done ostensibly for their safety but we know that the harm solitary confinement are devastating. they are particularly devastating for young people whose brains are still developing, who are still growing, and it is even more traumatic for people who have a history of trauma like jane does. but we also know from a decade of comments is that trans people who are almost universally housed in solitary confinement, our mobile rumble to sexual abuse while in solitary, usually from officers and other staff. figures, the statistics are staggering among all transgendered people. 16% have been incarcerated. among black transgendered people, 47% have been incarcerated? the numbers from the survey are indeed staggering. these are the drivers of

incarceration. it did this portion of the impact transgender women of color. in one california study of trans woman in a men's prison, they found it a nine percent of transgender women in california prisons had been sexually abused . so now we have a 16-year-old transgender girl with no criminal charges held in solitary confinement for 30 days , potentially longer, up to a thesevulnerable to all harms, and getting absolutely no care. aaron romano, what are your next steps in terms of defending your client in the situation that she's in right now? we filed a lawsuit in court to seek an injunction to prevent her further incarceration in the adult facility. as you pointed out earlier, dcf, haveffenders against doe, not been brought to justice. rather than seeking the arrest

and investigation and conviction of those people, having been f isght to prison, dc seeking the victim of sexual abuse to be brought to an adult facility. it just shocks the conscious that they would do something like that. >> chase, what does the aclu recommend? >> there are a number of things that we can do. we need greater oversight over our detention facilities where people are abuse routinely. we need mechanisms for people -- keeping people safe other than locking them up in concrete buses for 22 hours a day. >> we will link to the story. thank you so much to aaron romano, jane doe possible your, speaking to us from hartford, connecticut. connecticut.

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