This And That In the News – Life Behind Bars

"This And That In The News" is about articles in the news that have caught my eye and I want to comment about. There are three articles about trans-persons in jails that caught my attention today.

Transgender Woman Forced Into Men's Prison After Alleged Assault
Advocate
By Diane Anderson-Minshall
August 22, 2011

A transgender woman in Philadelphia who has been spent the last 14 months incarcerated at Riverside Correctional Facility, the city's only prison for women, is now being moved to the men’s prison after she complained that a correction’s officer forced her to perform oral sex.

Prison officials apparently did not know that Jovanie Saldana, 23, is transgender. But, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, while examining her allegations of assault, investigators recorded Saldana's phone conversations and overheard the inmate's mother chiding Saldana into telling authorities the truth about her gender. After that, Saldana — who has been living and dressing as a female since she was 12 years old — was transferred to a men’s prison.
[…]
Saldana was charged with several felonies June 11, 2010, including armed robbery. Prison officials say Saldana, who has not had sex-reassignment surgery, should have undergone a cavity search during the initial intake into the prison system and after each subsequent outing for court appearances.

Astonishingly, Lorenzo North, president of the union representing corrections officers, claimed the goof proved that the officer whom Saldana accused of sexual abuse is innocent.

Now tell me that the corrections officers did not know that she was trans after all those months. For whatever reason the guards kept their mouths shut and didn’t say anything about her being trans until she complained about being rape. Then they put her in a men’s prison where the chances of being raped has increased exponentially or she will be put in solitary confinement to punish her for being trans.

The next article is also from the Advocate…

Abused Transgender Teen Reaches Settlement in Philadelphia
Advocate
By Diane Anderson-Minshall
August 19, 2011

Lambda Legal announced the resolution of a discrimination complaint on behalf of L.P., a now-18-year-old transgender woman who was physically attacked by other residents and verbally abused by staff at Philadelphia’s Youth Study Center every day for almost a year and a half when she lived in the facility. The complaint was processed by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations against the city of Philadelphia Department of Human Services and the Youth Study Center, among others.
[…]
The allegations of the complaint were stunning. According to Lambda Legal, a Family Court judge ordered the Department of Human Services in February 2008 to provide L.P. with all appropriate medical treatment for gender identity disorder, including hormone therapy, and mandated that her female gender identity be respected. However, Youth Study Center staff and administrators failed to treat the girl in accordance with her female identity. They refused to refer to her by her preferred female name or use female pronouns. Staff also refused her access to clothing and grooming options that matched her gender identity and reprimanded her for acting in a feminine manner. When she asked to be referred to by her preferred female name, a staffer told her, “You ain’t no fucking female, you are a dude. ... Till you get your dick cut off, I’m not going to call you [by your female name].”

These are the people who are sworn to serve and protect us and they totally disobey the orders of a judge and violate the Human Rights of the inmates. I think they should get more than a slap on the hand and retraining, it should be a criminal offense and they should serve time for what they did to that woman.

Lastly, sometimes the law does come out in our favor but it takes a long time for it to happen.

Judge apologizes to inmate seeking sex-change
Associated Press
By DENISE LAVOIE
August 18, 2011

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday apologized to a transgender inmate who has waited years for a ruling on whether she can get a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation.

Michelle Kosilek, a convicted murderer, first sued the Massachusetts Department of Correction 11 years ago. Two years later, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender-identity disorder, but stopped short of ordering surgery to complete Kosilek's transformation into a woman.
[…]
Since 2006, Wolf has heard hundreds of hours of testimony from medical experts and others, but has not issued his ruling.

On Thursday, as Kosilek's lawyers made additional arguments citing recent rulings in other transgender cases, Wolf apologized for taking so long.

"I deeply regret that my decision in this case has not yet been issued," he said.
[…]
Wolf asked both sides to submit additional arguments in writing by Sept. 16. He tentatively scheduled another hearing for Oct. 11.

Isn’t that great, he is going to hold another hearing after holding hearings for 11 years.