LGBTQ people in prison
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people face difficulties in prison such as increased vulnerability to sexual assault, other kinds of violence, and trouble accessing necessary medical care.
[33] The New York State prison system (DOCCS) has revised policies in recent years to reflect transgender and nonbinary people's gender identities.
In January 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul directed the prison administrators to let transgender people choose to be housed in a men's or women's facility, and to give access to appropriate medical and mental health care.
[35] In 2015, the National Assembly of Vietnam passed a law which allows transgender people who have undergone sex reassignment surgery to register under their preferred gender.
Many attorneys[37] and advocacy groups have praised this as a new step towards ensuring the rights of Vietnamese trans people, while others[38] point out that the law needs amendments that clearly define what these separate areas are like.
According to the new Criminal Code, beside groups like minors, foreigners, and mothers who carry their children of under 36 months into jail along with them, "inmates that are homosexual, transgender or people of unidentified gender can be imprisoned separately.
The inmate brought a lawsuit on the basis of a law that obliges authorities to "guarantee (the availability of) intimate relations for prisoners with their spouses or, alternatively, with their (partners).
[46] On October 11, 2001, the Colombian Supreme Court issued a verdict in favour of the right to same-sex conjugal visits in a case brought by Alba Nelly Montoya, a lesbian in the Risaralda Women's Prison.
This policy was revised in July 2013 under Association for Civil Rights in Israel chief legal attorney Dan Yakir challenged the lack of conjugal visits for same sex inmates since 2009.
[51] In July 2007 through the efforts of the country's National Human Rights Commission (CDHDF), the Mexico City prison system began allowing same-sex conjugal visits on the basis of a 2003 law which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In 1992, UC Irvine researchers published an article detailing medical experiments performed on every trans female inmate in the California state prison system, ending with all subjects being indefinitely taken off hormone therapy.
In June 2019, Layleen Polanco, a Black transgender woman, died of an epileptic seizure in solitary confinement on New York City's Rikers Island.
[68][69][70] Medical scholarship also recognizes that this "treatment is critical to maintain the health and safety of inmates, as without it, transgender prisoners may fall into deeper depression and have greater risk of life-threatening autocastration".
[71] Various courts have addressed the constitutionality of denying transgender people in prison gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, mental healthcare, gender confirmation surgery, and grooming.
The settlement ended freeze-frame policies in all federal prisons, ensuring that trans inmates would receive individualized assessments and treatment plans for gender dysphoria.
Diamond had been undergoing hormone therapy for 17 years prior to her 2012 arrest, but because her intake forms failed to identify her as trans, the Georgia DOC's freeze-frame policy disqualified her from continued treatment.
"[100] Within a week of the DOJ intervention, Georgia ended its freeze-frame policy, committing instead to individually assess inmates' gender dysphoria and provide treatment accordingly.
[101] The court case, during which prison officials used incorrect pronouns in reference to Diamond, continued after this announcement, resulting in the Georgia DOC adopting a sexual assault prevention policy.
[105] Hicklin v. Precynthe effectively ended Missouri's freeze-frame policy, giving incarcerated trans people greater access to gender-affirming care across the state.
As established by legal precedent and confirmed by policy in Canadian and British Columbia Corrections Service, the complainant was entitled to continue her hormone treatment".
Kavanagh continues to elaborate on her transition prior to imprisonment in this address, stating "since 1981 I have been diagnosed as a transsexual, which means that my gender is female but my sex is male.
[108] Jody Marksamer, Shannan Wilber, and Katayoon Majd, writing on behalf of the Equity Project, a collaboration between Legal Services for Children, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National Juvenile Defender Center, say that LGBT youth are over represented in the populations of youth who are at risk of arrest and of those who are confined in juvenile justice facilities in the United States.
[115] "[P]risoners fitting any part of the following description are more likely to be targeted: young, small in size, physically weak, gay, first offender, possessing "feminine" characteristics such as long hair or a high voice; being unassertive, unaggressive, shy, intellectual, not street-smart, or "passive"; or having been convicted of a sexual offense against a minor.
[2] It wasn't until 2003 that PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) was enacted by United States Congress to aid in the prevention of sexual abuse and misconduct.
For instance at Rikers Island, New York City's largest jail, the segregated unit for LGBT prisoners, known as "gay housing", was closed in December 2005 citing a need to improve security.
The New York City Department of Corrections' widely criticised plan was to restructure the classification of prisoners and create a new protective custody system which would include 23-hour-per-day lockdown (identical to that mandated for disciplinary reasons) or moving vulnerable inmates to other facilities.
The report also links the over-use of solitary confinement as a factor in the high rate of suicide attempts by transgender people of color within the prison system.
[133] Activists argue that members of the LGBT community should have equal access to prison programs and services, a right protected and provided for under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S.
[citation needed] In the case of Synthia Kavanagh, a transgender female inmate who was convicted of second degree murder in 1989, she was assigned to a male institution despite explicit recommendations from the trial judge.
[135] The organization offers various services such as court accompaniment, a pen pal program, workshops and training, and support for LGBTQ persons who are experiencing sexual violence, harassment, or lack of health care.
