Can States and the Federal Government Agree on Transgender Inmate Rights?

Last week, the Mississippi State House, in an 84-30 vote along party lines, passed the “Real You Act,” prohibiting transgender inmates from legally changing their name or their gender marker on official documents, the Hill reports.

Now, the bill heads to the Mississippi State Senate, which has already introduced a similar bill for a vote. 

This news comes as last week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons recommended that a transgender woman incarcerated in Texas should consult with a doctor about receiving gender-affirming surgery. 

Advocates have called the Mississippi bill a direct attack on transgender people in the state.

“In a country that incarcerates a larger share of its people than any other, transgender individuals are disproportionately likely to end up behind bars. And once they are there, they face much higher levels of mistreatment and violence,” Rob Hill, state director of the Human Rights Campaign in Mississippi, said in a statement. 

Hill added, as quoted by the Hill, “They are often housed in facilities that do not match their gender identity, are inappropriately placed in solitary confinement, and face astronomically high rates of sexual assault.”

According to a 2018 report by the National Center for Transgender Equality, transgender people who are incarcerated are nearly 10 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the general prison population

“This bill does nothing to address any of the actual issues being experienced by incarcerated transgender people and instead places another hurdle in front of them,” Hill said.

Recently, a transgender woman behind bars at Rikers Island detailed to the New York Daily News that she was sexually assaulted three separate times over a six-month period behing behind bars with men — one time being choked unconscious and assaulted after a corrections officer let another inmate into her cell.

The survivor, Latee Brockington, said after all of the abuse she was left depressed and on suicide watch since 2020. 

In one of several interviews with the Daily News, Brockington said, “How many more of our community have to go through hardship, how many more of us have to get hurt before [the Correction Department] realizes that they need to do something about the way that transgender and LGBTQ+ individuals are being treated?”

Additional Reading: Could Separate Facilities for Transgender Inmates Save Lives?

State and Federal Reform

In New York state, legislators and politicians are singing a different tune compared to Mississippi’s initiatives. 

A few weeks ago, under a policy included in Governor Kathy Hochul’s $216 billion budget plan, New York’s transgender inmates will get to choose where they’re housed based on their gender identity, the New York Post details. 

Overall, prison wardens will have the final say on any request, making decisions on a “case-by-case basis” — taking into account all “safety, security, or health concerns” while also having the right to obtain “gender-affirming medical and mental health care,” according to the New York Post. 

Along with the latest reforms, Hochul has ordered the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) commissioner to draft rules and train officers “to forbid discrimination against transgender inmates.”

For critics in New York, Hochul has noted that New York City jails have adopted the transgender housing policy back in 2018, and that since 2014, there has been a special Rikers Island unit for transgender inmates.

Along the federal lines, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has updated its Transgender Offender Manual, removing outdated Trump-era language which says “biological sex” is what determines housing designations. 

Now, in the new manual, released on January 13, it’s recommended that all housing assignments are made with an individual’s preferred gender identity. BOP staff are also required to use inmates’ preferred pronouns, the Hill details. 

See Also: A Blueprint for Reform: Police and Transgender Rights

Andrea Cipriano is Associate Editor of The Crime Report.