I Sentence You To Five Years Of Rape

For trans women that is sometimes what happens when they convicted of a crime. It is almost like rape or solitary confinement is part of their sentence.

Judge Denies Transgender Inmate’s Request for Transfer
New York Times
By Deborah Sontag
April 20, 2015

MACON, Ga. — Ashley Diamond, the Georgia inmate whose lawsuit is making her a protagonist in transgender rights history, said in her first federal court appearance on Monday that she had come to blame herself for being a victim of multiple prison rapes, internalizing the guilt placed on her by corrections officials.

Ms. Diamond, a transgender woman who has been housed in male prisons since entering the system three years ago, said, “If I wasn’t so feminine, maybe if I didn’t talk the way I talked or move the way I moved, I would be less of a victim that way.”

Turning to address the judge directly, she continued in a soft voice: “I also feel a little less human because when I did report things, the very people I wanted help from, Your Honor, would tell me things like, ‘You brought this on yourself.’ “

It is one thing to be convicted of a crime and “doing your time,” it is entirely different to be subject to prison rape and according to the article she was raped seven time so far. The correctional facility has a legal responsibility to house the inmates safely, free form violence.

The article goes on to say, the correctional authorities used male pronouns, called her by her male name and refused to provide her hormones that she had been taking long before she was incarcerated.

After you have been on hormones for a number of years your testacies shrink and stop producing testosterone so when you go off of cross gender hormones (CGH) there could be all types of medical problems. The article says the prison authorities started CGH again because of the lawsuit but at too low of level and that,

But the judge said that the state had made a persuasive argument that it had transferred her as a “positive” reaction to the lawsuit. She is housed in the system’s smallest unit, which has 11 inmates, all with individual cells. It is a supported living unit for rape victims and for inmates with special mental health needs, state officials said, and they testified that they had increased security there over the past couple of weeks.

Ms. Diamond, however, testified that she had been sexually harassed, threatened and forced to pay protection money since her arrival. She said she had not gone to the mess hall for 17 days because she feared encounters with maximum-security inmates there. She said that when she declined to be put in protective custody, which she called “lockdown,” prison officials coerced her into signing affidavits saying she was doing well. (Officials denied any coercion.)

I am not saying that trans people should not be incarcerated but rather should be housed in a humane way, safe from violence and have all medically necessary treatment.