Transgender Inmate Gets Transfer To Women

Jennifer (first name has been changed) is a transgender woman who is currently transitioning. She was detained in June 2020 at the Seysses remand center, and was forced to live in the men’s quarter for almost a year, AFP reports. In addition to this, she was notably forced to wear male clothes by the prison staff and she was the victim of “words and transphobic acts on the part of many supervisors”, denounces the Toulouse association Grisélidis, which defends sex workers.

Like many of her other transgender inmates, Jennifer was placed in segregation, before being transferred to the women’s ward. Indeed, on April 9, the Toulouse court confirmed her gender change in civil status, allowing her to be transferred.

This is a rather positive decision but, unfortunately, “it won’t necessarily be easier for her in the women’s district”, underlines Laura Garnier, secretary of the LGBT Arc-en-Ciel Toulouse association. She explains as follows: “Recognizing our gender identity in prison is long and tedious. Already there is a lot of violence in prison, imagine what a trans woman can endure”.

This court decision creates “a problem with the excavations”, according to the head of the Prison Supervisors Union (SPS) of the Seysses remand center. “We ask supervisors to search a detainee who has the attributes of a man”, since Jennifer is in transition and has not been operated. He affirms that “the law says it must be between people of the same sex”. The union sent a letter to the Toulouse public prosecutor on Tuesday to propose a solution to this situation, namely to transfer the detainee to the transgender district of the Fleury-Mérogis remand center.