Locked up and Left Out: Transgender Inmates’ Battle for Adequate Health Care in Prison

• In Event: Perceptions and Treatment of Transgendered Populations

Abstract

Transgender individuals are faced with many difficulties and vulnerabilities to their health and well-being during incarceration. The health risks of overlooking the particular needs of transgender inmates are severe and acknowledgment of these problems and policies that assure appropriate and responsible provision of health care are needed. In this paper we examine the health care access available to transgender inmates. This project utilizes secondary data analysis to evaluate and determine what, if any, programs exist in the United States penal system that supports the maintenance of transgender inmates’ health protocol. Further, we will address other issues related to transgender inmates including, but not limited to; patient confidentiality, discharge planning, health professional qualifications, medication availability and delivery, staff training, and inmates’ social and psychological status. Current policy and political climates will be observed as these policy implications have been litigated extensively, based on the established constitutional principle that it is a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for prison officials to exhibit “deliberate indifference” to a prisoner’s “serious medical needs.” All aspects are examined through a queer criminological lens.

Authors

• Carrie Buist, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

• Regina Cline, University of North Carolina, Wilmington