Transgender Woman Angry For Being Thrown In Men's Prison

A transgender woman accused of indecent exposure is furious after she was forced to serve time in a MALE prison. Ashley Del Valle was arrested by police during a holiday in Savannah, Georgia for allegedly flashing her boobs.

The 38-year-old, from New York, denied the claim - insisting she was wearing a sheer top. But she was taken to a police station, and then thrown behind bars at a male-only jail.

Del Valle has lived as a woman for two decades, but she was classified a man because she still has male genitalia.

She spent four nights at Chatham County Jail - until family members paid to bail her out - and insists she was scared to death during her spell inside. She was given a private cell but was surrounded by other inmates, who taunted and insulted her.

Del Valle said: "They didn’t know where to put me. The young men there were out of control. They kept beating on my cell. It was pure torture." She also accused prison officers of humiliating her, adding: "They were referring to me as a thing; they were not referring to me as a human being."

Roy Harris, Deputy Chief of Chatham County Jail, has defended the decision to lock her up with male inmates. He said: "First off, Ashley is still a man. I think he’s had some surgery, breast implants. But technically he is still a male." And he insisted staff were sensitive to her situation, adding: "We do have a policy in place. Typically we put them in isolation. We do take particular caution with inmates such as this."