We Sometimes Forget

That prisoners have rights, that they are entitled to medically necessary healthcare. The Supreme Court has ruled that it violates our Constitution to deny them proper medical treatment.

ISSUES ONGOING AROUND TRANSGENDER INMATES IN IDAHO
Idaho Press-Tribune
By Ruth Brown
August 1st, 2016

Stover entered an Idaho prison in 1988 for a charge of lewd conduct with a child younger than 16. She was 18 years old at the time and had not yet come out publicly as a transgender person.

While laws and policies around the treatment of transgender inmates have changed over the years, Stover and the American Civil Liberties Union still urge the prisons to change policies regarding where those inmates are housed and what kind of medical treatment is provided.

The state of Idaho currently has 18 transgender inmates, all of whom identify as female but are housed in men’s prisons. Now 46, Stover, of Boise, was released from prison in December and will remain on parole for the rest of her life.

Connecticut has less than a half a dozen trans inmates and they are also housed in a male prison and that creates problems for everyone, the article goes on to say…

Public copies of the lawsuits outlined her complaints while incarcerated, including multiple incidents of sexual assault by other inmates, inmates “selling” her in exchange for money for prison commissary as a form of extortion, and harassment by guards. At least two of the lawsuits were settled outside of court.

In states that have a large enough transgender prisoner population like California can have a separate wing for trans inmates but what do you do for states like Connecticut where you have only four or five trans inmates? That is a problem that is being faced around the country.

Because of my visit last week I am starting to research the issue, one of the websites that I just found and have to read is National Institute of Corrections, their LGBTI Laws and Policies page looks interesting because it has sample policies from other states.