A Prison Within A Prison

A 16-year-old is imprisoned as a form of therapy.

Sounds good so far, right?  Well, it gets even better.

The teenager in question has been a ward of the state since the age of five.   During the next decade, this teen was beaten, raped, denied food and trafficked for sex--and endured homelessness. 

Oh, wait, there's more:  This kid is in a boys' detention center.  But she's a girl.

Yes, she's transgender.  Joette Katz, the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, recommended the detention of the teenager, who is identified only as Jane Doe.  Ms. Katz's reasoning--impeccable, as she used to be a judge, right?---is that Ms. Doe was "too violent" for the juvenile facilities in which she had been housed.

Forget that, according to some, the charges against Ms. Doe were overstated.  Even if they weren't, staffers at such facilities are accustomed to much worse than Ms. Doe dished out.  Besides, how is locking up someone--in solitary confinement, no less--going to make someone whose anger issues are probably linked to PTSD and having to deal with her gender identity less volatile?

Ms. Katz hasn't said.  So, Ms. Doe's lawyers are filing an amended suit in which Ms. Doe's Constitutional rights are being violated when prison staffers and officials refer to her by her birth name and male pronouns, force her to wear boys' uniforms and don't allow her to wear wigs and makeup.  These charges were added to the one that said that her Constitutional rights were being violated when she was kept in solitary confinement.

Whoaa...Solitary confinement?  In a boys' detention facility?  Even though she was never charged with any indictable offense before the incaluculably wise Ms. Katz put her in prison?

Such a gem of jurisprudence, coming from a former judge.  And people wonder why there are so many lawsuits--including the one on behalf of Jane Doe.

When An Enemy Of Trans People Is A Friend of Labor (Or So He Thinks)

A colleague is petitioning the college to build or designate transgender bathrooms.  "A male-to-female is taking her life into her hands when she goes into a men's bathroom!," she exclaimed.

"Tell me about it!"  I didn't go into detail, but I told her about an incident early in my transition in which a security guard harassed and outed me for using a women's bathroom.

The problems of shared public space are not, of course, limited to bathrooms.  In many other venues, the risk to transgenders of incurring violence or worse is great when they are forced to use facilities intended for the gender in which they are not living.  Though the dangers are more pronounced for male-to-female transgenders, female-to-males are not immune.

For trans people, perhaps no place is more dangerous than a jail or prison.  Almost everyone, except for the most physically intimidating, is potentially a victim of rape or other kinds of violent assault.  If a male-to-female is incarcerated with men, the warden may as well attach a target to her back.

That is why Texas Governor Rick Perry's refusal to comply with the Federal Rape Prevention Act is unconscionable.  

One of his rationales is that a provision of the act prohibits cross-gender searches.  About 40 percent of all guards in male prisons are female.  So, according to Perry, turning the Act into a law "may mean the loss of job and promotion opportunities".  

Ah, yes.  Rick Perry is a friend of labor.  So much that he has to compromise the lives of trans people.

And to think that he ran for President!

Monica Jones Goes On Trial for WWT

Some of my male students--and other young men I know--have been pulled over for a "charge" they refer to as "DWB", or Driving While Black.

Even adult black men are not exempt from such treatment, particularly if they drive late-model Mercedes,  BMW or Lexus cars.

I wonder whether any of them has ever been stopped for WWB:  Walking While Black.

It seems that somewhere there's a law on the books for WWT:  Walking While Trans. At least, that's what some police officers seem to think.

Last May, officers in Phoenix (AZ) arrested Monica Jones, an activist and social work student at Arizona State University.  She was speaking out at a protest against Project ROSE (Reaching Out to the Sexually Exploited), a controversial collaboration between the University's school of social work and the Phoenix Police Department. 

In Project ROSE, officers pick up people they suspect of "prostitution" and bring them--often in handcuffs--to a church.  There, ASU staff members check them in and match them with volunteers, some of whom are former sex workers.  These volunteers offer the arrestees a chance to enroll in a 36-week program in which they're given medical, mental health and other service if they quit sex work.  After completing the program, charges are dropped.

However, if the arrestee refuses to enter the program, doesn't qualify or is ineligible, he or she can expect to be summoned to court, where he or she could face prison time under Arizona's harsh sentencing laws.

You may not think that the program is such a bad deal.  After all, it offers services to people who might not get them otherwise and gives them a chance to get out of "the world's oldest profession."  However, if someone who has never been involved in sex work has been swept up, he or she can end up in prison for refusing to participate in a program for which he or she has no need.

That seems to be the case with Monica Jones.  She had no prior record of arrest, and from all evidence, has never been involved in sex work.  But the worst thing about this case is that if she is convicted, she will be sent to a men's prison notorious for human rights violation.  Plus, it goes without saying that her life would be in danger as would the life of any trans woman who ends up in a men's prison.

She is set to go on trial today.  More about her story as I get word on it.

Why The Rights Of Transgender Prisoners Matter

New Zealand is like most other countries in that male-to-female transgender inmates are confined to men's prisons.

Unlike most other countries, New Zealand has a government that is reviewing such a policy.  This is a result of report from the University of Auckland's Equal Justice Project, which documented the danger of sexual assualt such prisoners face.  

While the government's willingness to review the policy is laudable, Green Party Member of Parliament Jan Logue says that action is needed urgently because "when we lock someone in prison, we have an obligation to ensure that they are safe".

Whether or not one believes that the government should pay for the hormones, psychotherapy or surgery of someone in prison, I still think one has to agree that prisoners should be safe while they are in prison if one of the goals of incarceration is rehabilitation.  Granted, prisons don't always achieve this goal, and perhaps not all prisoners are rehabilitatable.  Still, the prison environment must be safe for anyone for whom there is any hope of change.

Also, while I believe that we are responsible for our actions, I know that having to deal with the ostracism, prejudice and even violence that many of us (as well as members of other "minority" groups) face is enough to drive some of us to desperation and rage--or to commit crimes or even violence in self-defense.  

I hope that the New Zealand government's willingness to review their policy will result in changing it and that more jurisdictions--including those here in the US--will do likewise.