New York (Washington Insider Magazine) The Legal Aid Society calls for the emergency establishment of a new working group.
The Legal Aid Society of New York (Legal Aid) reported in a statement that the special conditions and programs for transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex (TGNCNBI) people who are incarcerated in New York City prisons York, has shown “a frank regression in the last year.”
In summary, a stagnation is considered in all the advances so that the people of this group have a place of confinement according to their gender identity, in addition to medical attention and measures to avoid sexual abuse and physical violence, while they are in custody. .
“Initiatives in favor of the TGNCNBI community lost priority in this Municipal Administration. Any progress to ensure the well-being and quality of life of these people has stalled. I hear former colleagues on Rikers Island describing the deplorable treatment they are forced to endure every day,” said Maureen Sheehan, former deputy director of the New York City Department of Correction (DOC).
The categorical conclusion of Sheehan and other activists is that when Mayor Eric Adams chose Louis Molina as DOC commissioner, from that moment all initiatives in favor of that group began to be ignored.
“There is no clear policy that addresses the approach of persons deprived of TGNCNBI liberty,” he added.
“Experience Rejection”
A group of public defenders assured that they began to “experience rejection” for advocating for the proper placement of these inmates. In addition, they denounce sudden transfers from one detention site to another without prior notice.
“Requests have been ignored, leaving these people in dangerous situations, facing frequent threats and harassment, as well as repeated physical and sexual harm,” Legal Aid says.
The report’s findings revealed a prison system that renders TGNCNBI individuals invisible and therefore extremely vulnerable to the worst harm following arrest and incarceration.
As a result of these allegations, a task force urges the City to immediately release all of these individuals, while implementing rapid reforms on how to respectfully identify, house, and care for this community in local jails.
At the close of this edition, there were no known reactions from the City on this report.
This article is written by Fernando Martínez.
