United States Prison Policies: Effectiveness and Needed Reform for Transgender People

Transgender prisoners are not protected enough by the current policies that are put in place. On top of this, the policies that are in theory, spot to help and protect transgender prisoners, are not being implemented due to the broad and unclear language of the policy. For example, the current policy reading housing that President Biden has put in place uses language like “when appropriate” to place people in the housing that they identify with. This leads to the policies being subject to the opinions of the judges or prison staff, instead of being protected under a stricter law.

Housing policies also directly correlate to the overall treatment of transgender prisoners in prison as well as their health and safety. How transgender people are being treated, and how they are living is also based on what healthcare they are receiving.

Having an open and broad policy regarding transgender-affirming health care is also not a sufficient way to protect the lives of transgender people. The mistreatment of transgender people in prison caused by incorrect housing assignments, lack of healthcare, and overall bad treatment, can have terrible effects on the mental health and overall living of transgender people, in a disproportionate way to other cis-gender prisoners.

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Issued by the Young Feminist Scholars Program, Politics4Her Written by Rose Cuthbert