Aug 22, 2003  |  By: BRYAN ANDERTON  | COMMENTS     

Several weeks ago, Donnie “Viva” Hendrix was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for her role in the death of a Miami woman.

But the pre-operative transsexual woman, who had surgically enhanced her breasts but still had male genitalia, had already spent two years behind bars at a male prison at the time of her sentencing. During that time, she said she was denied hormone regimens she had begun before being incarcerated, and was assaulted by other inmates to the point that she required a double mastectomy.

Transgender activists say Hendrix’s situation is not unusual.

“Violence against transgender women in men’s prisons is an incredibly severe and incredibly common problem,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “The cause is the completely cruel, irrational and inhumane policy of housing transgender women in male prisons simply because they have not had genital surgery.”

“They are women, and they are in just as much danger of sexual assault and violence as any other woman thrown in with male prisoners would be,” Minter said.

Some prisons segregate inmates who are at a higher risk for harassment and assault — such as gays and transgendered people — from the general prison population. Federal prison officials did not say they would segregate transgendered inmates, but did say the federal prison system “ensures the physical safety of all inmates” and that it makes an effort to eliminate violence and predatory behavior in the prisons.

For most state and federal prisons, pre-operative transgendered people are housed based on their existing genitalia. The worry, officials said, was that a male-to-female transgender who still had male genitalia could potentially assault or impregnate women inmates.
But those worries are completely unfounded, according to Minter.

“Those concerns have no rational basis,” Minter said. “Transgender women who are on hormone therapy are not able to get anyone pregnant, and are no more likely to sexually assault another woman than any other woman.”

Another issue many transgendered people face is being able to maintain hormone therapies to change their sex once they are incarcerated.
James Essex, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian & Gay Rights Project, said the group gets calls from transgendered inmates “all the time” complaining that they were unable to receive hormone treatments.

Federal prisons, meanwhile, will maintain an inmate’s hormone therapy at the same level as when they were initially incarcerated, officials said.

“The use of hormones to maintain secondary sexual characteristics may be continued at approximately the same level as prior to incarceration with appropriate documentation from community physicians and hospitals, and with the medical director’s approval,” said Carla Wilson, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

D.C. takes on sensitive subject
The news for transgendered inmates locally is mostly positive.

While all D.C. inmates receive a medical examination at the beginning of their incarceration and are typically assigned housing based on their genitalia, special arrangements can be made for transgendered inmates, officials said.

“We realize that this is a sensitive issue, so they also have the option to elect to be placed in a protective custody setting, or we also have an option to place an individual in a protective custody setting,” said Darryl Madden, chief communications officer for the D.C. Dept. of Corrections. “The overall impact being that we want to do what creates the maximum amount of safety for the individual.”

Madden also said that, so long as a transgendered inmate had already begun hormone therapy when they enter the jail system, they would be able to continue it.

Earline Budd, a local transgender activist, said D.C. jails were usually responsive to inmates’ requests for hormones.

The area in which D.C. jails could improve, she said, is to institute sensitivity training on transgender issues for correctional officers. Madden said that while officers currently do go through diversity training, they do not undergo training specifically about transgender issues.