Illinois Women’s Prisons Housing Male Inmate

A man convicted of murdering his mother in 1995 is now living in an Illinois women’s prison, according to documents. Kmuel King was sentenced to 80 years and is currently at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois. While the state identifies him as “male,” it was previously reported that he was assigned to a women’s facility based on prison policies regarding gender identity. In 2021, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) announced that inmates wouldn’t be segregated solely by anatomy, but it remains unclear when or why King was transferred there.

Logan Correctional Center became a women’s-only institution in 2013. The IDOC has received multiple inquiries from news sources but has yet to respond.

King’s crime involved strangling his mother during an argument and enlisting his girlfriend to assist in concealing her body in a bathtub. Court documents reveal that they later moved the body in a shopping cart to a neighbor’s closet.

In 2021, the IDOC clarified its stance on gender identity, defining it as a personal sense of being male, female, or something else entirely, regardless of anatomical characteristics. Their policy states that “transgender, intersex, and gender incongruence offenders” should not be placed in gender-specific facilities based solely on external anatomy. For security purposes, placements are reviewed biannually to assess any risks associated with individual offenders.

Activists are also pushing for prisoners to receive hormone therapy and other medical treatments funded by taxpayers. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced in April that it would withdraw support from states placing male inmates in women’s prisons, facing subsequent legal challenges over this approach. The DOJ has declined to comment on the matter.