Calls for Prison Reform Follow Baltimore Transgender Detainee Complaint
Reform advocates say that Maryland state prisons and jails don’t do enough to protect transgender detainees from discrimination and harm.
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Kazzy Davis, an 18-year-old trans woman and foster youth, says she was discriminated against and feared for her safety after spending more than 40 days in the state-run Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, sparking renewed calls for greater reforms to protect the safety of trans detainees and inmates at state facilities, reports the Baltimore Sun. Davis said she feared for her safety when she was housed with men. She said she was repeatedly belittled because she is trans. For instance, when she received her hormone shots, staff sought to demean her by calling her, “Sir.”
The department’s “Medical Intake” standards require detainees and inmates to be housed based on a physical exam. “Incomplete surgical gender reassignment requires that the patient be classified according to his or her birth sex for purposes of prison housing, regardless of how long they may have lived their life as a member of the opposite gender,” the policy says. FreeState Justice, which advocates for and provides legal services to low-income lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Maryland residents, will pursue changes to state law in the upcoming session of the Maryland General Assembly. Mark Vernarelli, a Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman, said he could not discuss Davis’ case, but said the agency “takes very seriously the preservation of each detainee and inmate’s dignity, as well as his or her safety.”
