Toni Newman
Writer, law school student, and author, 'I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman'
Minority Transgender People and the Legal System: Addressing the Failure to Provide Equality
Posted: 12/03/2012 5:57 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toni-newman/minority-transgender-people-and-the-legal-system-addressing-the-failure-to-provide-equality_b_2092412.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toni-newman/minority-transgender-people-and-the-legal-system-addressing-the-failure-to-provide-equality_b_2092412.html)
On Transgender Day of Remembrance, which took place Nov. 20, 2012, I sat down and wrote letters to all my sisters and brothers in the prison system throughout the United States. Since writing my book and describing the injustices I faced within the legal system, I have received letters from transgender inmates within the U.S. prison and jail system asking for help. Their individual stories are very sad and disheartening. The legal system does not provide equal rights for transgender persons.
I remembered all the transgender people who have passed on, and I also remembered the transgender people whom most have forgotten about since they were incarcerated. Minority transgender people often have little to no family or financial support. Once they are arrested for midemeanors (such as prostitution or soliciting) or felonies (such as assault or murder), they are booked and detained according to their birth gender, not the gender with which they identify. (Los Angeles is the first city jail system in the country to house transgender people in a separate unit for up to three days until they are arraigned in court.) The public defender within the District Attorney's office usually advises the transgender person to take a plea regardless of innocence or guilt. With no money to hire outside attorneys, the transgender person takes a plea and is sentenced to county jail or state prison.