The Dangers of Solitary Confinement for Transgender Prisoners and Detainees

Lambda Legal recently joined five other LGBT advocacy organizations in urging a Senate panel to stop the discriminatory placement of transgender inmates and immigrant detainees in solitary confinement.

In testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, the organizations wrote:

Solitary confinement affects many people incarcerated in U.S. jails, prisons, and detention facilities, but none so significantly as transgender inmates and immigrant detainees involuntarily confined not because of their actions, but because of their identities. A full review of the inhumane practice of solitary confinement and its far-reaching consequences cannot ignore the experiences of this extremely vulnerable group of people.

Two of the other organizations that signed on to the testimony, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality, conducted a recent study that found that transgender people are more likely to be imprisoned than non-transgender people, and that transgender inmates are disproportionately housed in solitary confinement.

Also joining the testimony were the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and the Transgender Law Center.

The complete testimony is here.