Gender and Crimes: Analysis of Transgender Women's Prison Experiences

This essay delves into the critical issues faced by transgender women within the US prison system, highlighting the pervasive challenges of abuse, sexual assault, and the denial of basic human rights. It examines the legal and social contexts, including the role of hegemonic masculinity and the failures of detention facilities to provide adequate protection. The essay analyzes case studies and reports from organizations like Human Rights Watch, illustrating the vulnerability of transgender inmates and the violation of their rights. It also explores the impact of the Prison Rape Elimination Act and other legal provisions, while critiquing the shortcomings in their implementation. The essay concludes by emphasizing the urgent need for reforms to ensure the safety, dignity, and well-being of transgender individuals in correctional facilities, advocating for improved policies and practices that recognize and protect their gender identity and human rights.

Running Head: GENDER AND CRIMES
Bodies on the inside: Gender and prison
Name of Student
Name of University

GENDER AND CRIMES 2
Bodies on the inside: Gender and prison
A media article was published in news.com.au on April 18, 2016 which reported about
the torture that was faced by a transgender woman in a male prison of Australia. According to
the report all the transgender women who contradict the laws are sent to male prisons as they are
not considered as female at all. The victim in the instant case was asked to strip and was raped
for more than 2000 times during her detention in the prison. Another transgender women flew to
US for seeking asylum after she got tortured and sexually molested. In US she was kept detained
with male prisoners where again she was sexually assaulted by the guards of the immigration
(Lambert 2016).
Yet another trans- woman who was kidnapped, tortured and sexually assaulted by gang
members in her native State escaped to US where she was kept in detention facility with men.
The guards in the detention facility failed to protect her from being harassed and sexually
assaulted (Lambert 2016).
According to the Coordinator of LGBT Community Rights Program at Human Rights
Watch, Adam Frankel a number of women from transgender community who come to US to
seek asylum after being abused in their native territories are kept detained in the immigration
facility with men where they are exposed to more risk of sexual abuse and violence by the other
male detainees and the detaining authorities. The abuse is of the same nature which they tried to
escape from their native territories. They also have to sleep and bathe in the same place as other
male detainees. Further they are often exposed to embarrassing and offensive strip examination

GENDER AND CRIMES 3
by male authorities and the guards fail to protect them from the abuse (Human Rights Watch
2016).
According to a report of Human Rights Watch the present detention rules of the US
immigration centers require the detention of trans- women in male detention facility. As per the
estimates of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of US around sixty- five trans- women are
detained in immigration facilities of US. Further the report also says that women of transgender
community have to live in poverty, and experience violence and discriminatory behavior.
According to observations made by a number of other studies trans- women who have a darker
complexion or are poor and deprived have to face oral, corporal and carnal abuse during the
period of detention. They also face hurdles in getting access to hormonal replacement therapy
and HIV treatment (Stauffer 2016).
According to some academic writers violence and male domination has been accepted as
a culture in male prisons and male detention facilities in United States. Many countries deny to
accept the fact that violence and rape takes place in their prison while many other do not accept
violence and rape in male prisons and have made laws to punish such offences. In some other
countries sexual act and sexual violence are considered as common trend in prisons and
detention facilities. The sexual acts taking place inside the prisons require an improved
consideration for reasons like the occurrence of sexual violence, the threat of HIV infection and
also the possibility of the restoration of ex- offenders (Sim 1995).
It is assumed that most of the sexual acts occurring in detention centers are a result of
forceful sexual activity rather than a consensual one. But on the contrary some texts are of the

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view that some of these sexual activities are consensual. Further these sexual activities occurring
in detention facilities are one of the major contributors to the increasing number of persons
infected through HIV. The distinction between sex through consent and forceful sex inside a
detention facility is very vague. In most of the cases the nature of sexual act is forceful or
coercive. This vagueness has been one of the factors behind the rise in sex studies inside the
prisons (Gear 2001).
According to gender studies, hegemonic masculinity relates to the acceptance of male
dominance over other genders of the society and the subordination of the latter. Such domination
of male groups and subordination of the others is legitimately accepted by the society at large.
The gender studies has also given scope to feminism and transgender studies. The increase in
feminism and transgender studies further gives scope to criticize the idea of hegemonic
masculinity. On the contrary, the studies related to prison are not based on gender in particular
rather they focus on criminals as distinct from gender (Sim 1995).
The acts of violence by men in the detention in addition to the trend of hegemonic
masculinity, individual power of men and male dominance has been accepted as truth of prisons
and aggressive masculine milieu. The men are the rulers in the kingdom of prison who govern
the rules of the prison. The persons of transgender community are considered to be the queen of
the prison. They are looked at as submissive females to the carnal desires of the male
community. These reported consequences of power deprivation and the construction of gender
roles are unsurprisingly presented as the primary roots of rape in prison (Sim 1995).

GENDER AND CRIMES 5
Some of the sociologists and psychologists are of the perception that sex is a fundamental
requirement. Consequently, if human beings are deprived of it they look for other ways to fulfill
that requirement.
The acceptance of hegemonic masculinity gives arbitrary right to the male prisoners as
well as the detaining authorities at the immigration to exercise male dominance on the other
detainees in the facility. One another drawback of the recognition of hegemonic masculinity is
exclusion of female authorities at the immigration facilities.
According to a writer male detainees see forced sex as a means to exercise hostile
dominance and carnal gratification. A number of writers are of the view that rape is related with
matters of dominance and power. Therefore the object could possibly be power yet it could give
occasion for committal of rape. Also in the case of rape the carnal gratification might be the
initial objective but the act is caused in furtherance of the exercise of power.
One of the factors responsible for the committal of rape in detention facilities, as have
been observed by some of the writers, may be boredom. Another factor may be the length of the
period of detention. The reason behind increasing number of incidents of rape and sexual
violence in the detention facility is corruption and ineffectuality on the part of the detention
authorities.
Isa Noyola, the Director of Programs at Transgender Law Center, San Francisco, says
when women of transgender community are put into male detention cells by the State they are
put in the danger of being sexually violated (Human Rights Watch 2016).

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Flor Bermudez another authority from Transgender Law Center of San Francisco says
women of transgender community are beaten, harassed, raped, sexually abused and put in
isolation in the detention facility. They are not given access to medical care, HIV medication and
hormonal replacement therapy (Human Rights Watch 2016).
The Constitution of USA secures safety and health of every prisoner of transgender
community irrespective of the fact where they are detained. Further the Prison Rape Elimination
Act, also makes provision for the protection of prisoners of transgender community. Both the
legislations make provisions to cover the prisoners who are detained in private facilities or where
the detaining staff is not a government authority (National Center for Lesbian Rights 2014).
The court has observed that denial to provide hormone therapy to transgender prisoners is
in violation of the Equal Protection Clause (Fields v. Smith 653 F.3d 550, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS
16152).
The Prison Rape Elimination Act was enacted to make provisions to control the acts of
sexual violence and torture occurring in prisons, detention centers and immigration facilities
(Prison Rape Elimination Act 42 U.S.C. § 15601). The Department of Justice of USA dispensed
final rules for the implementation of the Act in 2012. These rules are called Standards. These
Standards did not made provisions for its application on immigration detention facilities but later
on in 2014 rules were made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the purpose.
Also prisoners have no right to bring action against the detaining authorities in case of violation
of these Standards by the latter (De’lonta v. Clarke No. 7:11-cv-00483, 2013 WL 209489 at *3
(W.D. Va. Jan. 14, 2013)).

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In one of its report Human Rights Watch gave some recommendations to the US
government regarding the detention of trans- women in male detention facility. The report gave
recommendations to make substitute detention facilities for transgender women and not detain
them in male facility, to revise its rules regarding the detention of trans- women in detention
centers and to ensure that those rules are in confirmation to the international law and to make
rules for the safe detention of trans- women with respect to their human rights, to take measures
to ensure that violence and harassment of any kind towards the trans- women detainees is
stopped and to provide them the medical care required by them (Stauffer 2016).

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Conclusion
According to the media article and other reports presented by different authorities the
vulnerable position of transgender women in immigration centers is evident. The government of
United States is taking measures to protect their basic human rights. The main reason behind
their deteriorating position is the gender identity crisis that some sections of the world society are
facing till date. The LGBT community still face gender identity crisis in most of the countries.
The main reason behind this is the non- acceptance of their orientation on the part of the other
sections of the society. This is also quite evident in the writings of some of the academic writers
who have accepted the male dominance and hegemonic masculinity culture in prisons and
detention centers. This acceptance further degrades the social status of the non- accepted
community of the society. It is the need of the hour to give recognition to their gender,
orientation and human rights.

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Reference List:
De’lonta v. Clarke No. 7:11-cv-00483, 2013 WL 209489 at *3 (W.D. Va. Jan. 14, 2013).
Fields v. Smith 653 F.3d 550, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 16152.
Gear, S. 2001, ‘Sex, sexual violence and coercion in men’s prisons’, Centre for the Study of
Violence and Reconciliation. Available from:
http://csvr.org.za/docs/correctional/sexsexualviolence.pdf. [8 September 2017].
Human Rights Watch 2016, US: Transgender women abused in immigration detention, face
sexual assault, solitary confinement, Available from:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/23/us-transgender-women-abused-immigration-
detention. [8 September 2017].
Lambert, O 2016, ‘A transgender woman talks about life in a male prison’, news.com.au, 18
April 2016. Available from http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/a-transgender-
woman-talks-about-life-in-a-male-prison/news-story/
ae7ecb63dbc4da82cc56b4f1a97267f3. [7 September 2017].
National Center for Lesbian Rights, 2014, Know your rights: laws, court decisions, and
advocacy tips to protect transgender prisoners, American Civil Liberties Union.
Available from:
http://www.nclrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/RightsofTransgenderPrisoners.pdf.
[8 September 2017].

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Prison Rape Elimination Act, 2003.
Sim, J 1995, ‘Tougher than the rest? Men in prison’, in T Newburn & EA Stanko (ed) Just Boys
Doing Business?: Men, Masculinities and Crime, Taylor and Francis. Available from:
ProQuest EBook Central. [8 September 2017].
Stauffer, B. 2016, “Do you see how much I’m suffering here?” Abuse against transgender
women in US immigration detention, Human Rights Watch, Available from:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/03/23/do-you-see-how-much-im-suffering-here/abuse-
against-transgender-women-us. [8 September 2017].