by Gray Trammel
Jaylee was charged with Child Molestation in the First Degree, Attempted Kidnapping in the First Degree, Kidnapping in the First Degree, Kidnapping in the Second Degree, criminal impersonation, and Murder in the Second Degree. According to a 1997 article by The Seattle Times, Jaylee wore a uniform and posed as a police officer, lured an 8-year-old and 11-year-old into a vacant building, handcuffed them, and molested the 11-year-old. Jaylee then was placed in jail before being released on $100,000 bail, when she murdered her grandfather and stated it was because he was “on his back,” all the time, although he was stacking wood at the time he was murdered.
Jennifer Jaylee is a Transgender journalist who’s currently in prison at the all-male Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) in Walla Walla. Jaylee founded the Top of the Mountain, a news-magazine that was made to help incarcerated people write about their lives and share news from inside the prison walls. Now, she is taking on the Washington State Department of Corrections (WA DOC) in federal court.
Jaylee launched Top of the Mountain in September 2023, after three people committed suicide in just one week at the WSP. Jaylee and classification counselor Rebecca HaneyNixon started the publication to help people inside the institution feel connected and share information.
Since then, Top of the Mountain has covered life inside the WSP, including prison news, commissary recipes, advice from longtime residents, and interviews with formerly incarcerated people. KUOW reported in February that incarcerated journalists meet monthly to choose themes for the magazine; Jaylee and Jeffrey McKee were interviewed about the publication and its role in the prison community.
Her journalism and legal advocacy now appear in the same public record. On August 7, Jaylee filed a case against the Washington DOC, and again on August 21, although the publicly indexed docket does not currently provide the substance of Jaylee’s complaint. The Seattle-Tacoma Chapter of Black & Pink has been supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ people in prisons since 2016, and recently posted on social media about Jaylee.
“She was denied a job at a concession stand that over the last three years has refused employment to all trans and queer applicants, while hiring several homophobes instead,” Black & Pink SeaTac said. “Jaylee filed a lawsuit against the discrimination by the unit manager who oversees the concession stand, as well as two inmates who were part of the job interview process and recommended Jaylee not be hired.”
Jaylee was then placed in solitary confinement, according to Black & Pink SeaTac, which stated she is in there solely due to transphobic discrimination. Rachel Ericson, deputy communications director for the WA DOC, told TtS that Jaylee is currently in administrative segregation.
“Administrative segregation is a temporary process to safely house an individual who poses a significant risk to the safety and security of staff, other individuals, a facility, requests protection or is deemed to require protection, is pending transfer to a more secure facility, poses a serious escape risk, or is pending investigation for behavior that represents a significant threat, which may include investigation from outside law enforcement agencies,” Ericson said. “Its purpose is to temporarily remove an individual from the general population until a timely and informed decision can be made about appropriate housing based on behavior and security.”
This is not the first time Jaylee has challenged prison officials in court.
In September 2025, Jaylee filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the WA DOC, Katrina Suckow, and unidentified DOC employees. The case was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice February 9, and the dismissal did not constitute a ruling on the merits of Jaylee’s claims on Eighth Amendment violations, retaliation, punitive solitary confinement, threats of transfer, and emotional and mental harm.
Jaylee built Top of the Mountain to document what happens inside the WSP. Her work has focused on the lives of people confined there — the news, problems, routines and experiences that can otherwise remain unseen beyond the prison walls. Jaylee has also written and published about navigating the legal system from prison. In a 2025 Prison Journalism Project article, she explained the process as studying law while incarcerated and filing lawsuits for herself and other incarcerated people.
The publicly indexed record of the 2026 federal case does not yet reveal the substance of Jaylee’s complaint. The allegations concerning discrimination and segregation have not been adjudicated.
But the central tension is clear: an incarcerated journalist built a publication to document life inside a state prison, and now claims of about what is happening to her inside that same institution are demanding transparency. Now rather than writing headlines to her own stories, her own treatment inside the prison is becoming the headline.
Black & Pink SeaTac is encouraging concerned community members to email the Washington DOC Secretary Tim Lang to demand Jaylee be placed in her previous housing within the Rainier Unit and that the DOC do not interfere with her right to file a lawsuit. Email him at Tim.lang@doc1.wa.gov. People are also encouraged to write supportive letters to Jennifer Jaylee – 730954, WSP – IMU, 1313 N 13th Ave, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
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