Segregated prisons create harm on vulnerable heterosexual men and bisexual men by forcing gay men to identify as gay men and transgender inmates must appear transgender. The segregation of gay and transgender inmates creates harm by stereotyping them as inherent victims. Although the intentions of a policy for the segregation of gay and transgender inmates was to protect them, but it actually caused them to become victims of assault and the policy reinforces problematic social assumptions about masculinity that gay men are not “real men” (Mann, 2006). The goal of a policy, even if it was made on the intentions to protect, can cause unwanted harms and constructed harms to the individuals it was intended to protect. Separating LGBTI inmates, particularly transgender inmates, will cause them to feel alienated due to the way they are housed.
Transgender inmates are placed in separate housing based off of their genitalia instead of their true gender identity. This will cause a backlash on those that have yet to receive genitalia reassignment because they will most likely be placed in a unit where they are most likely to get sexually assaulted. Even if a transgender were to be placed into separate housing they will be denied or will not fully receive the basic resources that the general population receives (Smith, 2012). The correctional system will also be burdened by having to place transgender inmates in separate units because they will have to come up with definitions of a transgender/transsexual and how to categorize a transgender. Total Separation and the Denial of Basic Resources One of the issues with the classification that transgender inmates, particularly male-to-female transgender inmates (MtF), face is being lab. .
on LGBTI inmates as they do for mental illness training. They should come up with a training program for LGBTI training that is somewhat, if not strictly, like the Crisis Intervention Team program. The program involves “40 hours of training for law enforcement officers on recognizing the characteristics of mental illness, skills to de-escalate situations rather than resorting to physical force, and information about local community mental health services and resources” (Reddington & Bonham, 2012, p. 240). The training program for LGBTI training should involve similar training as the CIT program; there should be training for law enforcement officers on how to recognize and characterize LGBTI inmates, skills to help victims of sexual assault instead of ignoring them, and complete information about the LGBTI health services and resources (Reddington & Bonham, 2012).
