Lgbt In Jails

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Throughout the world, the LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex) community faces tremendous difficulties throughout society. They have to deal with hate, prejudices, and discrimination for being who they are. One of the biggest problems LGBTI individuals face in the criminal justice system is how they should be treated. LGBTI inmates face the difficulties on how they should be housed in correctional facilities. Should LGBTI inmates be housed separately in correctional facilities? Or should they be placed into the general population of a correctional facility? In America’s jails and prisons, more often than not LGBTI inmates are housed in separate units from the general jail/prison population. Those that agree and…show more content…
In order to reduce the rates of sexual assaults against LGBTI inmates there is a need for them to be housed separately (Hinman 2008). But as a counterargument, LGBTI inmates should not be housed separately because segregation denies these inmates their basic resources that are granted to the general population, and it will also cause more problems within the correctional system itself (Tarzwell, 2006). This paper will be focusing on the issues that LGBTI inmates face in the jail and prison systems. The main focus is the separate housing of LGBTI inmates in correctional facilities. The first section of this paper is focusing on why LGBTI inmates should be housed separately, the second section will be focusing on why LGBTI inmates should not be housed separately, and the final section will be discussing possible ways to make the lives of LGBTI inmates less threatening and stressful when it comes to assault and basic…show more content…
179). Behind this representation of masculinity, anyone that displays any feminine traits is more likely to be victimized because masculinity is dependent on the gender binary. In this type of environment, any transgender inmate that appears to be feminine will be subjected to violent sexual assault. The “claims to masculinity are “only meaningful in relation to construction of femininity” (Dolovich, 2011, p. 7). This claim causes LGBTI inmates to become inherent victims because they are self-constructed females. The prison staff is also subjected to the hypermasculine ways of the prison environment causing them to reinforce the prison’s general population’s representation of masculinity. When a transgender or homosexual inmate reports being raped, prison staff does not respond because they believe that the “rape” was consensual sex. This leads to injustice for transgender inmates, especially, because they are mistaken as “homosexual males participating in acts of consensual sex” (Tarzwell, 2006, p.

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