Quote from: suzifrommd on July 29, 2014, 08:46:34 AM
Extremely biased article.
Couldn't come up with a single case of what they claim to be happening. The only concrete example deals with someone who clearly IS trans and is asking for simple treatment that we all take for granted.
TW: a lot, read at you're own risk
I am studying to write a dissertation of sorts on being trans and in prison, and Suzi is right. The article is biased, and I don't have the specifics now, but I can get them. Transmen and transwomen are far more likely to be raped in prison than the general population, and not necessarily by inmates. Prison guards are among the worst offenders largely because the Bureau of Prison's are a runaway organization. Additionally, physical assaults by officers are common as well. I don't have to get into the real threat of murder, but that's there too.
Transpeople routinely have to fight tooth and nail just to get access to things like hormones that so many of us take for granted. Most prisons have policies which state that new inmates must have some sort of GID before coming to prison for it to be real GID. The problem is that this is unconstitutional. The problem with it being unconstitutional is that prison laws are written in such a way that you must exhaust their remedies and appeal to their bodies before you can go to court (the Bureau of Prisons had a hand in writing these laws). And most inmates slip up and don't exhaust their pre-court options, making their case null. Additionally, good luck like getting access to hair removal or voice therapy which are "cosmetic" according to the prisons. All Federal Circuits of Appeals mandate hormones, I think only the 1st (of 11) has decided on SRS. Most case law on SRS is that it is cosmetic and not necessary.
Indeed, any medical care by for-profit prisons is hit or miss. One transwoman in a prison in Arizona I believe, died of HIV induced pneumonia. While she was dying, the inmates were the only people assisting her: giving her cold wash cloths to cool her down, cleaning the blood she was coughing up, and keeping her calm through the ordeal. The inmates tried to get assistance, but the prison doctors were convinced she was faking it. The inmates continued to protest (which carries backlash against them) until she was taken to a hospital where she died.
Another incidence is the threat that if we are victimized, we are burdened for it. In one instance, a woman was placed in a prison and actually got along well with the men there. They treated her as a little sister and she operated a pottery class. A new inmate raped her. The prison's response was to give him a slap on the wrist and punish her. They argued that the sex was consensual because she had "pieces of women's clothing, thus clearly consenting to any sex." She was put in solitary confinement for the rest of her sentence where guards beat and harassed her. The inmate was back in general population in a week and a half. The inmates, upon hearing what the new inmate did, murdered him.
And solitary confinement is another problem. Being locked up with no source of outside communication for 23 hours a day is a great way to go insane. Just as much happened to CeCe McDonald during her stay in prison. Most of the time it is 24 hours since guards do not announce the one hour in advance, so you're asleep when they decide you can come out. Combine this with the constant harassment from guards, or possible rape, and it would crack anyone. A lot of prisons put us in solitary automatically, some put is in solitary after an incidence in which *we* are victimized, and prison officials have been known to put transwomen in solitary on false charges (ruining any chance of good behavior) to separate us from the herd so they can have their way with us.
Prison is not cozy. The article's sole intent is to make it sound like transpeople get too much and prisons should take away what little they do give us. Its purpose is to undermine our humanity and make us seem like an oddity.
