Donald Trump plans to strip rape protections for trans prisoners, leaked memo reveals
“These changes to the PREA standards are reckless and dangerous," says Linda McFarlane, executive director of Just Detention International
By Aaron Sugg
The Trump administration plans to remove protections for arrested trans people under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), according to a leaked US Department of Justice memo.
Donald Trump allegedly intends to roll back the protections introduced under president Barack Obama in 2012, which were designed to safeguard LGBTQ+ prisoners from rape and sexual assault.
Obtained by NPR, the memo states that the revisions reflect the administration’s belief that there are only two sexes, male and female, aligning with an executive order Trump signed in January, on his first day of his second term in office.
Trans people may be effected in federal prisons, state prisons, jails and even juvenile detention centres
The proposed rollbacks include removing mandatory screenings used to assess whether transgender, intersex and gender-nonconforming inmates are at risk of sexual exploitation, as well as preventing investigators from considering gender identity as a motivating factor in assaults.
Facilities affected, if the memo comes to fruition, include federal prisons, state prisons, jails and juvenile and immigration detention centres, though it is unclear how the DOJ plans to enforce it.
Just Detention International, an anti–sexual abuse health and human rights organisation, expressed concern about the leaked rollbacks, warning it will cause “chaos”.
“Reckless and dangerous” – Linda McFarlane, JDI’s executive director on the rollback of protections to trans prisoners
Linda McFarlane, JDI’s executive director, said in a statement: “These changes to the PREA standards are reckless and dangerous.”
“It was already clear that the Trump administration does not think that transgender and intersex people have basic rights, let alone the right to exist,” she said, before describing the changes as a “green light for predators to sexually assault” adults and children.
Trans people are statistically four times more likely to experience violent crimes, such as sexual assault, compared to cis people, making them disproportionately vulnerable, the Williams Institute reports.
35 percent of transgender inmates held in America’s prisons have been sexually assaulted at least once
McFarlane continued: “The proposed revisions to the PREA standards will lead to increased chaos and violence inside prisons and jails, placing staff and incarcerated people in greater danger.”
According to reports by the US Department of Justice, 35 percent of transgender inmates held in America’s prisons have been sexually assaulted at least once during the first year of their sentence.
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