Trump DoJ ‘immediately’ suspends prison rape protections for trans and intersex people, according to leaked memo
The U.S. Department of Justice will “immediately” stop enforcing a swathe of federal regulations protecting trans and intersex prisoners from rape and sexual assault, according to leaked documents.
In a memo obtained by the non-profit news outlet Prism, DoJ official Tammie M. Gregg told prison auditors across the nation to “immediately pause” all “compliance determinations” for key safety rules concerning LGBTQI+ inmates, and advise prisons to “disregard” them.
Those rules include requiring trans and intersex prisoners to be allowed separate showers, banning body searches purely for the purpose of finding out what genitals they have, and requiring prison staff to consider their safety when assigning them to male or female wings.
Some of the suspended clauses apply to all LGBT+ people, not just trans and intersex ones, and many apply to juvenile facilities as well as halfway houses, rehab centers, and mental health facilities.
Gregg said these changes were intended as a stopgap solution while the Trump administration edits the regulations to comply with Donald Trump’s January executive order declaring that trans people should always and only be treated as their birth sex under U.S. law.
In the meantime, if actually implemented by auditors, her memo would effectively suspend numerous protections under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act for trans and intersex people, whom the DoJ’s own data suggests are at much higher risk of sexual violence in prison [PDF link].
The DoJ has not commented publicly on the leaked memo, and The Independent has asked it to confirm or deny the memo’s authenticity. NPR also obtained a copy, corroborating its legitimacy.
“These changes are a green light for predators to sexually assault incarcerated adults and children who are already disproportionately at risk,” said Linda McFarlane, executive director of the non-profit campaign group Just Detention, which trains prison staff on PREA compliance and has several certified auditors on staff.
“The proposed revisions… [are] already sowing confusion among prison leaders, who have worked for more than a decade to put in place common sense rules to end prisoner rape.
“The Department of Justice would rather see incarcerated people, including children, be sexually abused than allow trans people to express their gender identity. It’s sickening.”
Gillian Branstetter of the ACLU likewise said: “The only reason not to follow the Prison Rape Elimination Act is if you do not want to eliminate rape.
“PREA audits are difficult enough to secure in any impactful or transparent way. Telling auditors just to ignore the risks queer people face is as explicit an endorsement of their abuse as you can get.”
Passed unanimously by Congress in 2003, PREA is implemented via federal regulations that were updated in 2012 by the Obama administration to include specific protections for LGBT+ people.
Gregg’s memo was apparently sent out on Tuesday, December 2, to all DoJ-certified PREA auditors, who are not employed by the DoJ but are responsible for assessing whether or not prisons and various other coercive institutions are complying with the law.
