3 times men allowed to be housed in women's prisons harmed, impregnated inmates
Amid ongoing concerns about housing men with female inmates, reports have surfaced that a male triple murderer who identifies as a woman is threatening and harassing women at the prison where he’s serving his sentence.
The 68-year-old inmate is a man named David Chester Warfield who goes by the name Dana Rivers. Last month, a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Warfield was allowed to be incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California, following his conviction in the murder of Charlotte Reed and Patricia Wright, a lesbian couple, and their 19-year-old son, Benny Diambu-Wright.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
As The Washington Free Beacon reported, female inmates have complained about how Warfield has treated them since his arrival. According to the Beacon, women in his housing unit allege that he stares at them in a way that makes them uncomfortable and talks to them in a demeaning manner. He also allegedly forces the women in his housing unit to push him around in his wheelchair.
"Rivers has been a problem since he rolled in the door," one inmate told the outlet. "He is trying to control the women, saying he gets to bypass everything — special treatment."
A former employee at the prison, Tomiekia Johnson, also told the Beacon that a fellow inmate had noticed Warfield leering at her. Johnson said she lost her job in the prison after filing a complaint in 2021 against a California law allowing men to be housed in women’s prisons.
"I think it’s a slap in the face, because as much as they know I’ve been vocal about being housed with predators, and how much they target me, and how much it’s a known fact that they harass me and provoke me, for them to put him in the building with me is beyond negligent," Johnson said. "I feel betrayed by the prison for doing this."
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
As The Berkeley Scanner reported in June regarding the male inmate’s crimes, Warfield was accused of shooting and stabbing Wright and Reed multiple times in the bedroom of their home. The couple’s son managed to run outside the house before being shot in the torso and collapsing in the street.
Judge Scott Patton oversaw the trial that resulted in Warfield’s conviction and called the murder “the most depraved crime that I’ve handled in the criminal justice field in 33 years." Patton sentenced Warfield to 150 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
The inmate previously made national headlines in 1999 after he was fired for openly discussing "sexuality and the importance of gender self-determination" with his students at Center High School in Sacramento County.
The Center Unified School Board maintained that the former teacher’s gender identity was not the reason for his dismissal. Several parents had objected to Warfield revealing to his class that he had been sodomized at a young age and that he was planning to undergo a sex change.
Due to Senate Bill 132 in California, which the state implemented in 2021, Warfield was able to request a transfer to a women’s prison to serve his sentence because he identifies as female. Warfield is also not the only man who identifies as a woman who has been housed in a women's prison.
Here are three other cases where men who were allowed to be transferred to women’s prisons harassed, beat or impregnated female inmates.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
