AMA urges appropriate placement of transgender prisoners

CHICAGO — In an effort to address health and safety problems of transgender prisoners, new policy adopted today at the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Annual Meeting challenges the status quo of prisons and jails in the United States that house transgender prisoners according to their birth or biological sex. The AMA urges that housing policies be changed to allow transgender prisoners to be placed in correctional facilities that are reflective of their affirmed gender status.

“The problem facing the safety and health of transgender prisoners is severe and well documented,” said AMA Immediate Past Chair Patrice A. Harris, M.D. “Transgender prisoners are disproportionately the victims of sexual assault, suffering higher rates of sexual assault than general population inmates. The new AMA policy acknowledges that the increased rate of violence largely stems from transgender prisoners being housed based on their birth sex, and not according to their affirmed gender.”