Bodies in Confinement: Negotiating Queer, Gender Nonconforming, and Transwomen’s Gender and Sexuality behind Bars (original) (raw)
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Transgender people are one particular vulnerable group in the prison system. Recent US statistics suggest that physical assault was experienced by 16% of incarcerated transgender people in jail or prison, with 15 per cent experiencing sexual assault (Grant et al. 2011: 158). In comparison, one study from California reports an overall sexual assault rate of 4.4 per cent of all inmates in male California correctional facilities (Grant et al. 2011: 167). Denial of access to health care was another form of abuse of transgender people in jails or prisons, with 12 per cent reporting denial of routine health care and 17 per cent reporting denial of hormones (Grant et al. 2011: 158). There is no Australian empirical research. In addition the power dynamics inherent in the criminal justice system, transgender people are particularly vulnerable to the way the dynamics of cisnormativity play out in prisons. Transgender prisoners are further criminalised or pathologised in incarceration practices which aim to address and reduce their vulnerability. This comment will briefly examine these practices through the discussion of policy, procedure and practice regarding the treatment of transgender people in prisons, using a framework of cisnormativity. This comment will conclude by identifying some gaps in current research about transgender people in prison and suggest a way forward. Through the examination of the way cisnormativity affects transgender prisoners, this comment begins to move beyond strategies that respond to vulnerability and move towards approaches to prevent its replication.
Sexual victimization against transgender women in prison: Consent and coercion in context
We would like to thank the hundreds of transgender women incarcerated in California prisons who agreed to be interviewed and shared the details of their lives for the purposes of this research. In addition, we would like to thank the CDCR officials who facilitated this work by providing assistance with accessing transgender women in prisons for men, especially Wendy Still; a team of research assistants for contributing to data collection and Julie Gerlinger for her assistance with the statistical modeling in this article; and Kitty Calavita, Sarah Fenstermaker, Jody Miller, and anonymous reviewers for Criminology for providing consequential substantive comments on this work. We also thank our colleague, John Hipp, who provided valuable counsel on the statistical modeling.
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This paper examines how gender identities are constituted through contemporary practices of imprisonment in the United States, and England and Wales, with particular attention to transgender prisoners. I draw on recent queer theory, transgender studies, and Foucault's work, including what he refers to in the 1977-8 College de France lectures as "a triangle: sovereignty, discipline, and governmental management" (Foucault 2007, p.107–8). All three of these techniques of power operate within prisons, from the use of violent sovereign power in physical and sexual assaults, to the gendered disciplinary norms involved in rules about prisoners' clothing and appearance. The management of populations through biopower occurs throughout these prison systems, including in the categorization of prisoners by sex or gender, their placement in a men's or women's facility, and in government statistics about prison populations. I present a brief comparison of gender recognition policies in the UK and US, and then analyze the role of the English and American prison systems in constructing sex and gender identities. Gendered power dynamics are particularly evident in the policies and practices towards transgender prisoners in the US, who are often placed in inappropriate facilities, face high rates of violence and rape, and are erased from official reports and statistics. Just as Foucault used his analysis of the prison to show how disciplinary power operated in broader society, I conclude that contemporary prisons constitute and reinforce binary sex identities, normative gender identities, and violent forms of masculinity.