Legal Battles: Transgender Inmates’ Rights

• Author: McKenzie Huggin,Lorraine Phillips,Wade Luquet,Alex Redcay
• DOI: 10.1177/0032885520956628
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885520956628

The Prison Journal

2020, Vol. 100(5) 662 –682

© 2020 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0032885520956628

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Article

Legal Battles:

Transgender Inmates’

Rights

Alex Redcay1, Wade Luquet2,

Lorraine Phillips2, and McKenzie Huggin1

Abstract

Challenging binary gender norms and common conceptions of the

differences between sexes, transgender individuals are misunderstood,

feared, and often subjected to stigma. As a result, transgender individuals

are exposed to harassment, violence, and employment discrimination. The

negative outcomes of this exposure include poverty, unemployment, trauma,

homelessness, arrest, and/or incarceration. Within the correctional system,

stigmatization is heightened, leading to grave consequences for transgender

inmates. The goal of this article is to highlight these outcomes, as illustrated

from legal case histories, and to suggest best practice recommendations

for correctional system improvements in ensuring the rights of transgender

inmates.

Keywords

legal rights, transgender, inmates, correctional system

Introduction

Challenging binary gender norms and common conceptions of the differences

between the sexes, transgender individuals are poorly understood, feared, and

1Millersville University, Millersville, PA, USA

2Gwynedd Mercy University, Gwynedd Valley, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Alex Redcay, Millersville University School of Social Work, Strayer Hall, 316PO, Box 100251,

Lyte Road, Millersville, PA 17551, USA.

Email: alex.redcay@millersville.edu

956628TPJXXX10.1177/0032885520956628The Prison JournalRedcay et al.

research-article2020

Redcay et al. 663

stigmatized (Scherpe, 2015). In the larger society, transgender individuals are

subjected to harassment, violence, and employment discrimination, which results

in significantly high rates of poverty, poor health, and isolation (Caramco, 2017).

Their endurance of abuse and discrimination has been linked to higher rates of

substance use, mental and psychological distress, anxiety, depression, suicidal

thoughts, and HIV infection (Weber et al., 2018). Commonly, transgender indi-

viduals are negatively represented in culture and society. This antagonistic repre-

sentation worsens in institutionalized environments (Hochdorn et al., 2018).

Considering their frequent mistreatment, marginalization, and employ-

ment discrimination, transgender individuals may adopt illegal survival strat-

egies (Gordon et al., 2017). Some will participate in underground economies

to earn income (e.g., prostitution and selling drugs), or turn to substance use

as a survival mechanism (White Hughto et al., 2017). All such illegal acts

place transgender individuals at risk for arrest, incarceration, and health

issues (White Hughto et al., 2017).

The incarceration of transgender individuals is not only a consequence of

illegal activities, but also of biased policing and sentencing practices (White

Hughto et al., 2017). Historically, law enforcement has been part of the prob-

lem. The Stonewall Riots of June 1969 played a significant role in initial

public awareness of police brutality directed toward the transgender commu-

nity (Roberts, 2018). While some changes in policing policy have been

implemented, almost half a century later, it is still common for law enforce-

ment to presume any transgender woman is engaging in sex work, and to

stop, harass, demand identification, and make arrests on the suspicion of

prostitution. The transgender community refers to this phenomenon as “walk-

ing while trans” (Carpenter & Barrett Marshall, 2017).

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), 22% of

transgender people report police harassment, 6% report bias-motivated assault,

and transgender people of color report police harassment and assault at even

higher rates, 38% and 15%, respectively. Those transgender individuals who

work in the sex industry or participate in underground economies report more

elevated levels of police violence, two times as many physical assaults and four

times as many sexual assaults (National Center for Transgender Equality, 2015).

White Hughto et al. (2017), also report that 16% of the1.4 million trans-

gender adults living in the United States have been incarcerated at least once

in their lifetime.

Housing and Medical Care in the United States

Correctional System

Correctional facilities rely traditionally on two institutions to navigate how

they define, treat, and manage the placement of inmates in their custody—the