Denise Foster, a 55-year-old transgender woman, was found beaten and strangled inside her cell at Hālawa Correctional Facility on August 4.

She had legally changed her name from Godwyn to Denise and was serving a five-year sentence for a nonviolent offense, with release expected sometime next year.

Foster's family says a prison official only described her death as the result of "an incident," according to her niece, Queenair Bulawan. They say they learned the fuller story, that Denise had been attacked, from other people connected to the prison, not from officials themselves.

According to sources with ties to the state corrections system, the inmate blamed for the attack had already been convicted of murder twice, a detail prison officials have not confirmed publicly. Foster's attorney, Nelson Goo, said Foster was never violent and questioned why she was housed anywhere near an inmate that dangerous. "It doesn't make sense," according to Goo.

Transgender people in custody face well documented risks of violence, and Foster's death raises hard questions about how Hawaiʻi's prison system classifies and houses vulnerable inmates. Her family is now preparing to sue for the answers the state has not provided.

Hawaiʻi's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation should explain how Foster ended up in danger, and commit to real safeguards for transgender and other vulnerable inmates going forward.

Sign this petition to demand accountability and stronger protections, before another vulnerable person is failed the same way.