Judge Blocks Transfer of Trans Inmates to Men’s Prisons
A dozen transgender inmates requested an injunction stopping their transfer, claiming it would put them at risk of physical violence.
Defying an executive order from President Donald Trump, a federal judge blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from transferring 12 transgender female inmates to male prisons.
The Bureau of Prisons was slated to relocate the inmates to comply with a Trump executive order stating that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as valid.
That executive order also pledged to ban people assigned male at birth from accessing female-designated spaces, including single-sex accommodations in prisons.
The executive order also prohibits federal funds from being used for any medical treatment, procedure, or drug that would assist an inmate in transitioning or changing their outward appearance in a way that would not align with their assigned sex at birth.
To ensure compliance, the Bureau of Prisons issued a memo, obtained by The New York Times, outlining how transgender inmates were to be treated.
The memo requires prison staff to refer to inmates by their legal name or pronouns matching their assigned sex at birth.
The memo also stated that transgender women may be subjected to pat-down searches by male guards and would no longer be permitted to buy bras or other women’s clothing at prison commissaries.
Transgender prisoners would also not be allowed to purchase items that bind breasts, remove hair, or, in the case of transgender men, allow them to use urinals.
Neither the Bureau of Prisons nor the Justice Department have yet to officially adopt the memo’s guidelines.
The 12 inmates set for transfer filed a lawsuit Friday, Feb. 21, to prevent the Bureau of Prisons from forcibly transferring them from the female prisons where they are currently housed to male facilities, reports USA Today.
The plaintiffs argued that ending their transition-related medical treatments would violate their right to be free from “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The inmates also argued that, due to their gender identity, being placed in men’s prisons would put them at higher risk of harassment, abuse, physical violence, and sexual assault.
They cited the Trump campaign’s spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on political ads vilifying transgender Americans as evidence that the Trump administration’s actions may be motivated by anti-transgender animus.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, of the District of Columbia, a Reagan appointee, had previously issued a temporary restraining order on Feb. 18 blocking the transfer of three other transgender inmates to male prisons.
Lamberth subsequently extended that restraining order, issuing a preliminary injunction to block the transfers on the grounds that transgender inmates were likely to prevail on their constitutional claims.
Lamberth said he was not convinced that transgender inmates would be safer at a low-security men’s prison than in their current facilities. He found that “numerous government reports and regulations recognizing that transgender persons are at a significantly elevated risk of physical and sexual violence relative to other inmates” when housed in facilities corresponding to their biological sex.
Lamberth also found that placing transgender inmates in male prisons would exacerbate their gender dysphoria — even if they were not subjected to physical or sexual violence — because “the mere homogenous presence of men will cause uncomfortable dissonance.”
Lamberth’s restraining order only applies to the transgender individuals involved in the lawsuit and not to other transgender inmates in the federal prison system.
As of February 20, the Bureau of Prisons claimed to be housing 2,198 transgender inmates in prisons and halfway houses — with 1,488 transgender females who were assigned male at birth and 710 transgender males who were assigned female at birth.
About 22 of those 1,488 transgender women are assigned to female-designated facilities, and one transgender man is assigned to a male facility. The other transgender inmates are housed in facilities matching their assigned sex at birth, but until recently, have been receiving special accommodations, including the provision of gender-affirming care, to treat their gender dysphoria.
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