CeCe McDonald Prison Confinement Raises Concerns

[Shana A]

CeCe McDonald Prison Confinement Raises Concerns
CeCe McDonald, the transgender woman sentenced to 41 months in jail after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter in a violent attack against her, is being held in a male facility in Minnesota, including time in solitary confinement.
BY Julie Bolcer
June 11 2012 12:14 PM ET

http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2012/06/11/cece-mcdonald-prison-confinement-raises-question

The young fashion student was sentenced last week to 41 months in a correctional facility for men in St. Cloud, Minn. Some advocates have expressed outrage at the placement, which MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry explored Sunday on her show.

Harris-Perry reported that the Minnesota Department of Corrections currently houses 10 transgender inmates, all transgender women, in men's facilities. McDonald, who was allowed to shower alone and stay in a single cell, is currently undergoing a short-term evaluation that will determine where she will serve the remainder of her sentence. State officials told Harris-Perry's team that the facility is aware of the heightened sensitivity around McDonald's situation and is receiving close monitoring.

However, Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, who spoke with Harris-Perry, said that McDonald called her support committee with an update over the weekend. She reported that she has left administrative segregation, or solitary confinement, and is now in the general men's population. According to Keisling, a study in the California state prison system found that transgender women are 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted when they are in men's cells.

[Nicolas]

I'm shocked that she is now with the general public. I would think that the correctional facility's administrators would like to prevent any future instances of violence within their walls - if not for the sake of her well-being for the sake of the facility's own personal benefit in safety.

It is disheartening to know that child abusers appear to be cared for (kept away from the general population) more than a transgender woman, no matter her crime.

[Shana A]

Transgender woman sentenced to men's prison in Minnesota killing
       
By Matt Pearce
June 18, 2012, 2:47 p.m.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-transgender-woman-sentenced-to-mens-prison-20120618,0,7339203.story

McDonald eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in exchange for 41 months of prison time — which, according to a Minneapolis Star-Tribune report on Monday, will be served in a men's facility, not a women's.

McDonald is taking hormone treatment as part of the transition to becoming a woman, but officials decided to classify her as a man. She has requested to continue receiving hormone treatments in prison.

[...]

"People tend to think about how CeCe identifies as a woman and say she should be able to go to a women's facility," Katie Burgess, the executive director of the Minneapolis-based Trans Youth Support Network and a McDonald supporter, told the news website Colorlines.

"But there's really no history of transgender people being placed according to their gender identity. So once CeCe is placed in a permanent facility, she'll look around and decide if she feels safe there. If she doesn't, she'll move forward with a civil suit against the Department of Corrections to be relocated to a safer place. That may or may not be a women's prison."