The Biden administration has restored Obama-era guidelines surrounding the housing of transgender inmates in federal prisons based on self-identification.
On January 13, the Bureau of Prisons re-issued its Transgender Offender Manual, which includes guidelines previously scrubbed by the Trump administration with respect to gender self-identification for federal inmates. Under Trump, housing based on biological sex alone was taken into consideration for offender housing, but the new policies re-invoke Obama-era guidelines which make a transgender inmate’s “personal safety” a priority.
The guidelines also state that ‘misgendering’ is expressly forbidden, and that taxpayers must subsidize cosmetic surgeries, sex hormones, and brassieres for men who claim to identify as transgender.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued the new guidelines with the intention of ensuring that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) “properly identifies, tracks, and provides services to the transgender population.”
The manual conflates biological sex with gender stereotypes and defines ‘gender’ as “ a construct used to classify a person as male, female, both, or neither. Gender encompasses aspects of social identity, psychological identity, and human behavior.”
It also defines sexual orientation in a manner which erases the defining aspect of biological sex, stating, “Sexual orientation [is] the direction of one’s sexual interest towards members of the same, opposite, or both genders,” and, confusingly adds, “Sexual orientation and gender identity are not related.”
“Deliberately and repeatedly mis-gendering an inmate is not permitted,” the document warns.
Male inmates who declare a transgender identity may request to be searched by female staff. “Pat search information refers only to individuals at male facilities who identify as female,” according to the manual. “The Bureau does not offer ‘male only’ pat searches. Unless there is a history of inappropriate sexual behavior suggesting approval poses risks to staff, requests are ordinarily approved by the Warden’s Office.”
Male inmates can also request to be strip-searched by women, referred to in the guidelines as a “visual search”. “Transgender inmates may also request an exception to be visually searched by a staff member of the inmate’s identified gender.”
Trans-identifying men will also be entitled to receive women’s underwear, at taxpayers’ expense, even if they are not being housed with female inmates.
“Inmates with the CMA assignment of transgender will have the opportunity to have undergarments of their identified gender even if they are not housed with inmates of the identified gender. Institutional laundry will have available institutional undergarments that fulfill the needs of transgender inmates,” the manual states.
The Bureau of Prisons houses roughly 155,554 inmates at 122 facilities around the U.S. Of these, the agency estimates that approximately 1,300 self-declare a transgender status.
Evidence is mounting that convicted sex offenders are taking advantage of the legal loopholes afforded to those who claim to be transgender. For instance, in 2020, a federal judge ordered taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin to subsidize a convicted pedophile’s demands for estrogen and women’s clothing. Mark Allan Campbell, a prison inmate who identifies as a woman, repeatedly raped and sexually abused his 10 year-old daughter.
Campbell, who began using the name ‘Nicole Rose’ after being incarcerated, claimed distress at being denied ‘gender-affirming’ surgery and is seeking transfer to a women’s prison. If Campbell is later transferred to a women’s facility it will likely be Taycheedah Correctional Institution, which hosts a summer camp for children and mothers.
According to Keep Prisons Single Sex, an activist group that advocates for incarcerated women, almost 50% of male federal inmates who identify as transgender are in custody for sex offences. This is compared to just 11% of the non-trans male inmate population.
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