I firmly believe that the policies held within the Transgender Offender Manual have the ability to either affirm or deny the humanity of some of our prisons most vulnerable inmates. I urge you to overturn the 2017 changes to the Transgender Offender Manual and uphold the regulations in the Prison Rape Elimination Act. As you know, the transgender offender manual is a set of standards meant to ensure the safety of transgender inmates in federal prisons through specific recommendations and policies. In 2017, the change notice was implemented and states that that except in rare instances, transgender inmates should be placed in prisons according to their biological sex. This directly goes against the Prison Rape Elimination Act or PREA.
The prison rape elimination act exists because the U.S. government recognizes that no person should endure sexual abuse or rape as a part of their sentence. Clearly, such a sentence would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. As you know, the standards in PREA are mandatory to the Bureau of Prisons and are very clear that in regards to transgender inmates, “an agency may not simply assign the inmate to a facility based on genital status.” While the changes to the Transgender Offender Manual use similar language as PREA in stating that decisions should be made on a “case by case basis” this statement is undermined by the mandate to use “biological sex as the initial determination for designation” and by stating that housing by the inmates gender identity “would be appropriate only in rare cases.”
Transgender inmates are at greater risk of rape and sexual assault A California study found that when transgender women are housed with men, they are 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than male prisoners in the same facilities. Additionally, your very own U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in a 2011-2012 survey that close to 40 percent of transgender prisoners reported experiencing sexual victimization while incarcerated. Just last year in 2017, a transgender female inmate in Texas, Passion Star, settled a lawsuit on issue against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Passion Star a/k/a Zollicoffer v. Livingston. Passion Star had been held in 7 different male facilities in Texas where she was repeatedly raped, sexually and physically abused, and threatened because of her gender identity. Despite filing dozens of grievances and complaints, prison staff repeatedly denied her protection and continued to place her in general population with her abusers.
Alternatively, many correctional facilities have housed transgender people consistent with their gender identity without experiencing any increase in abusive incidents or security risks. Prior to this change, the Transgender offender manual and the Prison Rape Elimination Act were in agreement about how to prevent rape and make prisons safe and humane. This change deliberately directs the BOP to violate PREA, makes prisons unsafe, and encourages cruel and unusual punishment by putting transgender prisoners in direct danger of being raped. Safety in our nation’s prisons I understand that these changes were meant to protect the rights of all inmates especially those who have privacy concerns or religious reasons for not wanting to be housed in the same facility as transgender prisoners. However, housing inmates according to gender identity does not have a history of causing safety or security risks. Conversely, housing transgender inmates according to their biological sex without considering other factors has caused documented cases of harm to inmates by increasing the instances of sexual and other violent crimes within prisons.
Beyond that, what you are voting for here today has nothing to do with our personal beliefs about transgender identities, and has everything to do with creating a culture of safety and order in prisons. By overturning this change notice, you will minimize the risk of rape and sexual abuse, uphold existing Bureau of Prison mandates outlined in PREA, and avoid costly and time-consuming lawsuits against prisons for violating inmates’ constitutional rights. I urge you to uphold the Bureau of Prison’s commitment to safe prisons by overturning Change Notice 5200.04 CN-1 to the Transgender Offender Manual and ensuring that all policies regarding transgender inmates align with PREA. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to our nation’s safety and justice.
Works Cited
- ACLU (2018). 2018-06-19 Letter to BOP RE changes to transgender offender manual – final. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/letter/2018-06-19-letter-bop-re-changes-transgender-offender-manual-final
- Beck, A.J. (2014). Sexual victimization in prisons and jails reported by inmates 2011–12: Supplemental tables: prevalence of sexual victimization among transgender adult inmates. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112_st.pdf
- Lambda Legal (2018). Passion Star a/k/a Zollicoffer v. Livingston. Retrieved from https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/star-v-livingston
- Prison Rape Elimination Act National Standards. 28 CFR 115 (2012).
- U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons (2018). Change notice 5200.04 CN-1, transgender offender manual. Retrieved from https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5200-04-cn-1.pdf
