W4B Contains unread posts Jan 28 – Feb 4 W4B: Transgender people in prison are e

W4B
Contains unread posts
Jan 28 – Feb 4
W4B: Transgender people in prison are exposed to horrific rates of abuse by both staff and their fellow inmates, facing physical and sexual assault at much higher rates than their counterparts. Transgender people are ten times as likely to be sexually assaulted by their fellow inmates and five times as likely to be sexually assaulted by staff. Transgender prisoners also face numerous other challenges behind bars, including denials of medical care and lengthy stays in solitary confinement. Staff—who often are responsible for perpetuating abuse themselves—may blame LGBTQ prisoners for their own victimization, believing they are “flaunting themselves” and refusing to take grievances or reports of abuse seriously. If their vulnerability is recognized at all, it may be by placing them in indefinite solitary confinement, with little or no activity or human contact—conditions that can cause serious psychological harm and trauma, and which, as medical and human rights experts have found, can amount to torture. In other cases, LGBTQ prisoners’ requests for temporary protective custody are generally ignored. Though practices are changing, many facilities still house transgender people strictly according to their genital anatomy or the gender they were thought to be at birth—often increasing their vulnerability to abuse. Facilities may deny them access to gender-appropriate clothing or grooming items, and punish them for attempting to express their gender identity. Searches, especially strip searches, can be unpleasant, humiliating, and in some cases traumatic for LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people alike. But these searches can be especially traumatic for transgender prisoners, who are often searched by someone of a different gender, and are sometimes searched simply so that prison staff can see their genital characteristics, or for the purpose of humiliating or harassing them. In addition, some facilities still place decisions about the medical needs of transgender people in the hands of administrators rather than health care providers, adopting blanket policies against providing hormone therapy or other transition-related care.
Transgender women who are housed in men’s prisons are at especially high risk of sexual abuse. For example, one statewide study in California found that when transgender women were automatically housed with men, they were 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than male prisoners in the same facilities. The PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003) standards also limit how long someone can be in segregation for their protection and require them to have as much access to work and educational opportunities and programs as possible. The law permits officials to segregate LGBTQ prisoners as a short-term, temporary measure when specific circumstances demand, such as upon admission while determining an appropriate long-term placement, or immediately following an assault and during its investigation. Whether ongoing segregation of a vulnerable prisoner is permissible depends on the purpose of segregation, the existence of feasible alternatives, the harshness or restrictiveness of conditions, its duration, and how frequently the continued appropriateness of segregation is reviewed.
Qs: What changes would you suggest we implement in our prisons, jails and detention facilities to better serve the unique needs of our transgender inmates? Each student is expected to post Four responses to each original question; please do not post all 4 in one day, I want to see your engagement in the course minimally on two different days. Posting all 4 responses per topic in one day will impact your scores. Post by Sunday 11 p.m. Late postings or all 4 in one day postings will not be accepted, sorry.