Transgender immigrant detainees face isolation in detention
By Nancy Lopez
http://www.kalw.org/post/transgender-immigrant-detainees-face-isolation-detentionThe issue of prison rape is often belittled by standup comedians, but it's really no laughing matter – especially if you're a transgender woman locked up in an all-male facility.
Grace Lawrence, 43, is a transgender woman from Liberia who was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, for nearly three years. For all but six months, she was kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
Often, transgender inmates are placed in protective custody – also known as solitary confinement – for their own protection.
"It was hard. But that's just me, but the same thing was happening to other transgenders that was around me," says Lawrence.
