Thanks for your response. That has given me food for thought. To me, one of the more grotesque features of American life has always been the horrendous treatment of prisoners in the US prison system. It has always astonished me that convicts have not been able to sue the prison authorities for the gross abuse they are subject to: and yes, rape is top of the list. When you think that citizens successfully sue McDonalds for scalding hot coffee and other crap through the courts how prisoners are still subject to such barbaric treatment really saddens me. (And, yes, I know lots of them are complete low-lifes, but it degrades us when we descend to that level.)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Seraphita" s3raphita@ wrote: > > > Because I have a morbid curiosity, I was wondering if it's > > ever happened that a convict has served time in a men's prison > > and subsequently been transferred to a women's prison after the > > necessary gender-reassignment. Why anyone on FFL should know the > > answer to that one I can't imagine. > > I can't, but Manning isn't likely to actually get gender- > reassignment *treatment* in prison, although her lawyer is > planning to sue for it. Here's a video and two articles on > the circumstances she faces: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWqaNx8mDBc > (interview with a trans friend of Manning) > > http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/22/chelsea_manning_is_now_t\ he_most_famous_transgender_inmate_in_america_all.html > (article at Slate by Amanda Hess) > > http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/22/how-the-policy-might-be\ -changed.html > > http://tinyurl.com/lcxqlea > > Excerpt from the Daily Beast piece: > > How Chelsea Manning Will Test the Military's Transgender Policy > > ...[The Prison Rape Elimination Act] led to regulations from the federal Department of Justice to determine housing for transgender inmates on a case-by-case basis, "taking into account factors like personal preference and safety needs," according to the ACLU, not solely based on their genitals. The act bans "protective custody" for transgender inmates, along with segregated LGBT housing units, and it requires staff to be trained on how to communicate with and treat transgender inmates, even including the ban of "genital searches of transgender inmates just to determine their gender." Those rules, as of June, apply to all correctional facilities that require federal funding. > > Manning's notoriety and her public revelation about being transgender already put her at serious risk of harassment and/or rape at Leavenworth. No giant leap from there, then to argue that Manning would be best protected by the prison rape act by doing time in a women's facility, [Dru Levasseur, transgender rights project director at Lambda Legal] said.... >
