Which Jail Do Transgender People Go To?

[CJD]

(03-08-2022, 02:46 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Your for instance of a fully transitioned person who has not had genital replacement surgery being more at risk seems logical, but at the end of the day it doesn't hold water.  There are already plenty of men in prison who dress and act as women but are not transgender, for one.  Two, they may be more at risk of sexual assault, but so is a physically weak man with no gang protection.  Following your argument, we would need to make separate facilities for the physically small/weak as well as they are at far more risk of assault than a larger, more physically strong man.

Also, determining the facility by the person's genitalia covers you from a slew of potential lawsuits.  What is to stop a large and imposing man from declaring they are now a woman, agreeing to take HRT (for which they could easily cheek their meds) and then being housed in a woman's prison?  Yes, that seems like an extreme example, but I assure you that criminals will find every possible loophole in a rule and exploit the hell out of it.  Even without that, can you imagine what would happen to Elliot Page, or any other FTM transgender person who has not had genital replacement surgery, if they were housed in a men's prison?  Suffice to say, it wouldn't go well for them, at all.  When you look at all the potential ways it could, and would, go wrong housing a person based on their genitalia is absolutely the most fair and equitable solution.

I don't know if lawsuits are avoidable in either case. If you place a MTF in male prison and she is raped because she presents as female, even if she has a penis, there is going to be outrage. If you place a MTF in female prison and she rapes someone because she still has a penis, there is going to be outrage. I think in either scenario, the best solution is to make prison a place where prisoners do not run the yard, so to speak. Again, idealist speaking here, I don't think we're close to this. But rape and murder as well as requirement to associate with gangs in order to not die/get beaten in prison should be the prison industrial complex's #1 goal to remove from prisons. Unfortunately, that just isn't the case for a variety of reasons. Like, what are you going to do to a prisoner who has a life sentence if they rape someone? Just...more years? It gets to a certain point where our prison system can only do so much. I understand that. It's just something to strive towards.

The FTMs are a little more complicated, as you stated. I'm more conflicted about them in this scenario, but I'd still allow a FTM to go to a men's prison if he so chose. Kind of a "you take on the risks of your own free will" type of thing.

For the time being, like I said, I think genitalia is the most common sense solution and should probably be the path that most places take. But I still believe there should be some consideration for those deep in the transition (not just guys cheeking their meds, maybe hormone tests need to be surpassed before admittance as a possible solution) and for those who have had bottom surgery. Even if it is done via individual petitions from the prisoners themselves.