Transgender Prisoners

Transgender people in today’s society have it hard enough; going to prison is even harder due to the risks associated to someone who is transgendered. People who are transgendered risk their health and well-being while being locked up in prison. They face a variety of issues while they are incarcerated such as housing, physical, emotional abuse and most of all denial to their basic medical needs that helps express who they are through their gender.

Prisoners that are incarcerated go through many hardships during the course of their sentence. The mistreatment that inmates in prison encounter is unjustifiable in many cases. Amongst the inmates mistreated, transgender prisoners are challenged in many ways with abuse, misconduct, and discrimination. Transgender individuals are people who do not identify themselves with the gender that was assigned at birth. The high-risk profile of being a transgender inmate in prison strikes for deep concern and something needs to be done.

Imagine being a woman in a men’s prison. For many prisoners, this is the case because most state court correctional decide to sentence transsexual women in transition inmates based on sex assignment, not their identity. Within most dominant U.S. cultures transsexual women in transition are defined as those whose sense of gender is so absolutely opposed to their sex assignment at birth that they individuals desire to live exclusively as the opposite sex, undergo hormone treatments to align with the opposite sex, and sometimes undergo surgery to match their sexual organs with their gender identity (Stirnitzke 291). Often people are

The prison system is set up to house inmates based on their gender; male or female. But, society has evolved and the standard binary system does not apply to most people today, so where does this leave the transgender inmates? Trans inmates, regardless of whether they have been taking hormones before their sentence or not, are housed in the facility that matches their biological gender rather than their identified gender. Transgender inmates, especially trans women, face many obstacles including access health care, violent attacks, and sexual assault, however, if a trans inmate has received sex-reassignment surgery, they will be housed with their identified gender meaning that prisons are housing inmates based on genitals rather than

There is not a plethora of research on the transgender inmate population. Brown and McDuffie (2009) report 750 transgender prisoners were in custody in 2007. The only reason this population is last on the list of importance is because of the limited population. Transgender inmate population pose one of the most challenging legal questions to the DOC. How far does the DOC have to go in providing medical, psychiatric, or surgical needs to those inmates who enter the correctional facility as transgender (Brown & McDuffie, 2009). There has been some successful litigation that has addressed these issues with inmates who have been diagnosed with gender identity disorders (GID). Brown and McDuffie (2009), suggest California has some of the most “comprehensive directive” that allows inmates to continue or initiate “cross-sex hormones for appropriately diagnosed inmates” (p.288). Ultimately, the transgender population pose a real threat to the correctional environment, such as, safety issues and predatory behavior by other inmates. One area of concern for transgender inmate population, because it is such a relatively new population, there are not a lot of facilities medically equipped to care for them properly (Brown & McDuffie, 2009), a lot like the elderly inmate population. This population is as equally at risk of being violated as any of the other special

Correctional providers are also encouraged to provide educational materials for transgender individuals coping with their HIV diagnosis. The second theme pertains to patient safety, which considers safety measures for transgender individuals due to their experience of being targets of violence (Phillips & Patsdaughter, 2010). The acknowledgment of safety concerns validates the experiences and concerns during incarceration. Discharge planning is the third theme ensuring that prior to discharge, individuals will receive sufficient hormone therapy until they find a community provider (Phillips & Patsdaughter, 2010). Connecting transgender

In order to reduce the risk of harm, many prisons have elected to put their transgender inmates into segregation, to keep them away for the general population (Smith, 2012). Administrative segregation is often used the most when housing transgender inmates. This form of segregation is very similar to solitary confinement, meaning that inmates are put in a single cell and left alone for hours at a time (Simopoulos & Khin Khin, 2014). When put into administrative segregation, the inmate often loses various opportunities such as being able to work, having visitation hours, exercise, specified treatment, and other activities (Smith, 2012). It is not unusual for the segregation cells to be less then desirable. Most times they dirty, unkempt and sometime even

Using the framework set out by Netting, Kettner, McMurty, and Thomas’ Social Work Macro Practice this paper seeks to systematically analyze and inform the reader about the discriminatory North Carolina laws regarding gender-marker changes. This paper will first describe the population and related need for binary transgender people, either transitioning from male-to-female or female-to-male, second examine the relationship between the need and the population, and conclude with a brief description of general changes.

This eBook reports on issues relating to multiple elements of incarceration within Australia’s Criminal Justice System. Specifically, a large allotment of text is allocated to discuss transgender inmates and their sexual identification once in prison. The author Cyndi Banks, acknowledges that prisons may adopt either genitalia- based placements or a identity based placements and notes that if genital reconstructive surgery has not been undergone, the inmate will be identified as their birth sexual orientation. Further, the text discusses the detrimental effects these systems have on transgender prisoners and states that research data indicates that these manners of imprisonment may ultimately affect the offender’s chance of successful rehabilitation, which is a significant problem. This literature is effective in portraying the current problems associated with transgender inmates, and has has aided me to understand that the sexual identification of a transgender inmate has a significant impact on them during the period that they are incarcerated. Additionally, this is a problem that a prison officer within scenario seven would be required to comprehend and this text begins to explain solutions to this.

Substance abuse treatment focuses on dealing with the issues and triggers that cause a particular person to abuse a drug in the first place. Whether it be all male, all female or mixed population the population is separated by the sex that they were born with at birth and limited, if any consideration given to a person who is transgender (Oggins, 2002). This population tends to not seek treatment due to the discrimination that they themselves have experienced or the discrimination that they have been told about by other transgender people (Lyons et al, 2015). In the article “A qualitative study of transgender individuals’ experiences in residential addiction treatment settings: stigma and inclusivity” by Lyons et al. the lack of knowledge and personal biases on the part of the counselors contribute to the stigma felt by the transgender population when seeking treatment. Most of the time the population of the substance abuse treatment facilities are addressed only through the binary lens of gender. Gender is all too often assumed to be an orientation similar to being gay, lesbian or bisexual by those who are outside the field of sexual studies. To a person who has had limited if any contact with people from the transgender community or training on what it means to be transgender putting a transgender into the box of

The housing subject focuses more of the safety and security of the inmate. According to jailhouselaw.org the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 categorizes transgender individuals as “potentially vulnerable prisoners” (jailhouselaw.org). It has been shown that transgender individuals are more likely to be subjected to additional physical and sexual violence when placed into a non-gender identifying prison. This would warrant the need for additional personnel and resources to maintain more monitoring than is usually needed for inmates. This is needed to provide for the safety of the inmate which could sometimes result in the need for segregated housing. The need for extra housing within a segregated unit could end up costing more to the tax payers in the form of additional units needing to be constructed. Which in turn, would require additional support and security staff needed to effectively provide for a secure environment. There is an additional housing concern in which transgender inmates could be assigned to gender identifying prisons. If such a case were to present itself with females that were transgender being transferred to a female correctional facility further consideration would need to be addressed with a shortage of housing accommodations available in a female prison. As such, in Kansas there is only one female correctional facility with limited bed space, and the resulting onslaught of transfers could result in a need to expand the facility. This would have approximately the same financial impact as a male segregation unit, but could be more beneficial in the security of the transgender offender. While the costs associated with housing add to an already financially strained system, the issue of medical treatment also needs to be addressed. The medical cost associated with transgender offenders focuses on the aspects

However, a growing number are criminalizing sex between women as they believe doing so strengthens laws against men as the countries can assert the legislation is 'gender neutral' and therefore not discriminatory. (independent.co.uk) Nonetheless, these laws are still discriminatory, not based on gender but against the equality rights of homosexuals in general. Lack of rights is also evident within prisons for the LGBT community. Transgender people in prisons are forced to live in different conditions than other prisoners in order to insure their safety. Incarcerated transgender people are often housed in facilities that don’t correspond to their gender identity, have difficulty getting access to hormones and are placed in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time. People in solitary confinement are especially vulnerable to abuse from prison staff, and spending 23 hours a day alone in a cell whittles away at someone’s mental health or makes pre-existing conditions even worse. The United Nations secretary general stated, “To those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, let me say: You are not

It is ironic to me that the American Psychiatric Association and other institutions in American feel that being transgender is a disorder, because in the prison system they refuse to treat transgender inmates. The refusal of hormone medicine, cognitive therapy and other treatments is a normal pattern in prison systems

In a lot of places around the world more and more people are coming out as “Transgender.” The term transgender means that the person’s gender identity does not correspond with the gender they were assigned as having at birth. From personally having a transgender boyfriend I have since realized that these people experience a lot of discrimination in and from society. Many people simply just do not understand what the term transgender means and they see it as someone just “wants to be a man” or “wants to be a woman.” While there may be people who present it this way, it is more so that the individual just “feels” different, and “feels” as if they are “in the wrong body.” Some people experience this feeling at a young age as my boyfriend did in his elementary age. We live in a world who put these people down for being who they truly are, and no human being wants or needs that.

If you remember, I recommended long ago, that all the official “Alerts in place” transgender detainees, should be housed alone out with others, no matter where they would be housed.