Gender identity in the era of mass incarceration: The cruel and unusual segregation of trans people in the United States

Abstract

The scarce legal recognition of the gender identity of trans people is a contributing factor to the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States. The disproportionately higher rates of incarceration of trans people—especially trans people of color—are driven by discrimination-based barriers to housing, employment, education, and trans-specific healthcare. The denial of trans identity in prison results in the ill-treatment of trans persons, including a heightened exposure to assault and violence. Concerningly, incarcerated trans people are commonly confronted with harsh conditions of confinement such as solitary confinement, which are generally enacted to (presumably) protect their own safety. Against this backdrop, this article advances Eighth Amendment-based arguments for (indirectly) affording a more consistent constitutional protection to gender self-determination in prison settings. First, the article argues that a more robust dignity-based interpretation of the Eighth Amendment regarding the conditions of confinement can lead to recognizing (self-determined) gender-affirming placement as a basic human need, the deprivation of which causes constitutionally relevant harm. The second argument relies upon penal theory to illustrate that the denial of gender self-determination in prison settings, with all the negative corollaries it implies, contradicts the fundamental pillars of each major justification for punishment. Thus, such a denial does not serve any constitutionally justified penological need.