Honesty Bishop may hear the screams of different individuals in solitary confinement. Generally it was so chilly in her cell, she may see her breath. She handled scabies and mould. Her days and nights have been spent in excessive isolation.
The Missouri Division of Corrections stored her locked in a cell in regards to the dimension of a parking house for over six years.
She wrote letters to her sister, Latasha Monroe, in St. Louis. They each questioned why Bishop continued to be held in such extreme situations at Jefferson Metropolis Correctional Middle, a males’s facility.
Interviews and information on Bishop’s years in solitary confinement paint a darkish image of an individual who felt alone and hopeless, and, within the depths of despair, was pushed to self-harm.
Bishop, a transgender girl, initially landed there after her cellmate tried to sexually assault her in spring 2015.
She was HIV-positive and due to the assault was labeled as “sexually lively” — although she was the sufferer and had been on medicine, making the virus undetectable and due to this fact untransmissible, in response to a federal lawsuit filed in opposition to the Missouri Division of Corrections.
Among the many causes individuals might be stored in isolation, in response to the division’s coverage, are homicide, rape and being sexually lively with HIV. In her swimsuit, Bishop mentioned corrections officers stored her in solitary confinement due to her HIV standing.
Every time she appeared earlier than a committee that reviewed her placement in solitary, which usually happened each 30 or 90 days, corrections officers famous 15 instances when Bishop had no violations because the earlier evaluation.
“I’ve been good,” she informed them throughout a listening to on her solitary confinement in January 2016, and once more that September.
Although she filed grievances about how lengthy she had been stored in solitary, her pleas have been ignored. Division of Corrections officers wouldn’t launch her from the unit till 2021 — after greater than 2,000 days.
Missouri is certainly one of three states that singles out individuals with HIV in the case of solitary confinement, in response to a evaluation of 49 states’ insurance policies on administrative segregation and restrictive housing.
The division’s HIV coverage will now be modified below the phrases of an Aug. 20 settlement that resulted from the lawsuit.
The state agreed to take away language singling out individuals with HIV for segregation. The phrases additionally embody conducting an evaluation of anybody with HIV who is distributed to solitary and necessary coaching for some jail employees.
The division wouldn’t remark particularly on the coverage or the lawsuit. Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman for the company, mentioned a committee is within the means of overhauling restrictive housing. Two prisons are piloting a brand new mannequin that features “significant hearings” and programming to assist individuals reenter the overall inhabitants in jail, she mentioned.
Bishop didn’t reside to see the coverage change — she died by suicide on Aug. 13, 2024. She was 34.
Punishing individuals with HIV
In March 2011, O’Fallon, Missouri, police confirmed up at Bishop’s foster mom’s residence within the St. Louis suburb with an arrest warrant alleging Bishop had stolen one thing price lower than $750.
Bishop and her siblings had been break up up after they have been youthful, however stayed in touch with the assistance of a caseworker.
Monroe, 38, mentioned her sister confirmed indicators of her gender identification as a baby.
“Youngsters, they play home or one thing, and he or she would wish to be the momma,” mentioned Monroe, who was 4 years older than Bishop. “She was at all times the mother, and we have been like her children and the whole lot, so I felt it then.”
Of their later teenage years, the siblings didn’t want a caseworker to assist preserve them collectively — the sisters stayed shut on their very own. Monroe gave Bishop driving classes in Forest Park in her Oldsmobile Cutlass. They went to the Delight pageant in St. Louis for a few years, and to events and drag reveals, the place they may let free and be themselves.
From left: Bishop’s sisters Bonita Scott, 20; Christina Monroe, 35; and Latasha Monroe, 38; on the Transgender Memorial Backyard in south St. Louis, in July 2025.
When the officer confirmed up at her residence to arrest Bishop, who was 20 on the time, she initially complied, then ran. They scuffled, and he or she bit him. As soon as in custody, she informed the officer she fled as a result of she was scared.
She pleaded responsible to resisting arrest, assaulting a legislation enforcement officer and recklessly risking HIV an infection — a criminal offense that got here with a 15-year sentence. Missouri handed a legislation in 1988 that criminalized some types of transmitting HIV. The measure was expanded in 2002 to particularly embody biting, however that provision was eliminated in 2021.
After Bishop violated probation, she was sentenced to 22 years in jail in March 2014.
As of January 2025, 218 individuals with HIV have been incarcerated in Missouri, in response to information obtained by The Midwest Newsroom and The Marshall Undertaking – St. Louis. Twelve have been housed on the Jefferson Metropolis Correctional Middle, a facility that has been the topic of complaints and the place the 2023 demise of an incarcerated man led to felony expenses in opposition to a number of corrections officers.
It was there that Bishop started transitioning from male to feminine. At instances, she had entry to gender-affirming clothes and medical care. Bishop selected her first identify, Honesty, Monroe mentioned, as a result of she was trustworthy and was “gonna let you know like it’s.”
Transgender individuals in jail are significantly susceptible to violence and discrimination. Thirty-five % reported being sexually victimized in jail, in response to a 2015 federal examine. Bishop’s cellmate tried to sexually assault her in April 2015.
Jefferson Metropolis Correctional Middle in Jefferson Metropolis, Missouri.
The sexual assault led the Missouri Division of Corrections to deem her “sexually lively.” Its coverage says somebody with HIV who’s sexually lively might be despatched to solitary. Missouri, Alaska and Michigan single out these with HIV of their administrative segregation insurance policies. In response to a public information request, Alabama mentioned its coverage was “a restricted doc.”
Such insurance policies are “very unnecessarily stigmatizing,” mentioned Tara Vijayan, a professor of medication at UCLA who has been caring for sufferers with HIV since 2007.
“It’s not clear to me what the objective is or what they’re attempting to forestall,” she mentioned, including that since 2011, proof has proven that sufferers with undetectable ranges of the virus can not transmit it.
It’s unknown how many individuals are held in mandated single cells in Missouri based mostly on being sexually lively with HIV. The division doesn’t have these information, mentioned Matt Briesacher, chief counsel for the Missouri Division of Corrections.
The injury of solitary confinement
Bishop was allowed out of her cell — shackled — for one hour, three days per week, in response to the lawsuit. She didn’t have entry to a telephone, courses or a job. She significantly missed TV and radio as a result of she beloved music. Beyoncé was her favourite artist.
For 3 years, Bishop didn’t obtain gender-affirming medical care. She was uncovered to chemical brokers used to subdue different prisoners. A corrections caseworker informed Bishop she was going to “rot in there” as a result of she had HIV, the lawsuit mentioned.
She received depressed and anxious, and tried to take her life in 2015 and once more in 2016.
Craig Haney, a professor of psychology on the College of California, Santa Cruz, has been learning the psychological results of solitary confinement since its use started growing within the Seventies as a option to cope with overcrowding.
“It’s a psychologically traumatizing expertise,” Haney mentioned of the analysis he and others have achieved. “It persists after any individual will get out of solitary confinement. In some cases, it’s deadly.”
Folks in long-term isolation usually draw deeper into themselves, he mentioned. Their functionality to work together with others atrophies. Once they’re launched again into the overall jail inhabitants, there’s an expectation that the whole lot is OK once more.
“No one offers individuals popping out of solitary confinement the form of particular consideration and therapeutic contact that they want to have the ability to reintegrate themselves again right into a social world,” Haney mentioned. “And that’s compounded in the event that they then get launched from jail, they usually have to determine not solely the troublesome job of creating the transition from jail to the free world.”
By September 2016, the division decided Bishop didn’t have any so-called enemies. The subsequent month, expenses in opposition to her from the altercation along with her cellmate have been dropped.
Bishop filed a number of grievances about her prolonged time in isolation — all of which have been denied. In response to requests to evaluation these paperwork, Briesacher mentioned the grievances are closed information as a result of they pertain to the “security and safety” of the jail.
Whereas she was in solitary, corrections officers introduced Bishop earlier than a classification committee, which helps decide housing selections, dozens of instances. Findings have been usually nonexistent, in response to the studies, solely saying she was “on single cell mandate.” Paperwork present the division’s justification for protecting her in isolation modified. A 2015 listening to cited the altercation along with her cellmate. A September 2016 report mentioned “poor behavioral points.” A listening to from March 2017 claims she was assigned to solitary “on account of adjustment points.”
Some hearings failed to incorporate a motive for her continued confinement. Others famous improved habits or mentioned she’d had no violations because the final evaluation.
Within the lawsuit, Bishop’s attorneys described the hearings as “sham evaluations,” usually lasting lower than a minute. Bishop alleged that jail employees generally didn’t permit her to talk. In November 2017, she informed the committee she’s been violation-free, which is confirmed in notes on the studies.
Lastly, she was launched from solitary in July 2021, and was freed on parole the next 12 months.
Honesty’s legacy
Monroe and one other sister drove to the jail to choose up Bishop.
“I simply had pleasure,” Monroe recalled.
Bishop had grown out her hair and seemed completely different on account of her transition. The sisters celebrated her launch, and Bishop was intent on getting her life collectively. She received a job as a prepare dinner and dishwasher at an area membership, saved as much as purchase a Dodge Dart and met a person who grew to become her companion, Monroe mentioned.
The sisters loved going to The Grove, a St. Louis neighborhood recognized for its LGBTQ+ tradition. Monroe mentioned it was an space the place her sister felt like she may very well be herself. Somewhere else, Bishop may really feel paranoid.
With help from the MacArthur Justice Middle, a nonprofit civil rights agency, and Lambda Authorized Protection, Bishop filed her lawsuit in opposition to the Missouri Division of Corrections in June 2023. Monroe mentioned her sister wished justice and a change in coverage after spending years in solitary confinement with no solutions. The swimsuit alleged the division’s coverage was unconstitutional.
MacArthur Justice Middle attorneys Amy Malinowski, left, and Shubra Ohri on the group’s Missouri workplace in downtown St. Louis, in July 2025.
“It targets individuals residing with HIV in a discriminatory means, based mostly on stigma, and there’s simply no motive for it,” mentioned Shubra Ohri, an lawyer with the MacArthur Justice Middle.
“It’s our place [in the lawsuit] that she was tortured whereas in solitary confinement,” mentioned Ohri.
Even when there was little to be optimistic about, Bishop noticed the nice round her, Ohri mentioned.
“I wish to say if you discuss to Honesty, it felt like she was glowing,” she mentioned. “She was simply such an attractive individual and so curious in regards to the world.”
Bishop was open about her struggles in solitary, and her suicide makes an attempt.
Issues took a flip when her boyfriend died in July 2024. Shortly after, Bishop and Monroe talked for hours. Monroe inspired her to grieve, but in addition tried to impart some positivity. The final time they talked, Monroe informed her about educating her companion’s son to drive in Forest Park. Bishop sounded down on the decision. A number of days later, the household discovered she had died by suicide.
Ohri mentioned Bishop’s time in isolation performed a “enormous position” in her demise. Outwardly, Bishop tried to remain optimistic. When she was struggling, she seemed for a option to escape her unhappiness. However the “base trauma” of over six years in solitary created anxiousness and darkness. That compounded when Bishop’s companion died.
In February, her attorneys refiled the case with Monroe because the plaintiff. The household wished to pursue the case as a result of they knew it was essential to Bishop.
Life with out her has been quieter. Monroe mentioned she didn’t attend Delight in June.
“I’m used to her calling my telephone and be like, ‘Hey honey,’” she mentioned. “It’s been tough.”
However Monroe mentioned her sister could be glad there was some measure of justice and that “issues modified for the following individual so that they gained’t must undergo what she needed to undergo.”
