A Wild Elegance Issue One, Post One

July / August 2006

Included here:
Sex Abuse at State Prisons
Scientific Proof of transsexual
Some facts About transsexual and Incarceration

SEX ABUSE AT STATE PRISONS
According to the U.S. Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics, sexual abuse of state prisoners by their keepers is rampant in this country. In 2004 alone, more than 8,000 reports of sexual abuse and assault were made against corrections officials in state and federal prisons across this country, according to co­author of the study, Allen J. Beck.

Of the 8,200 reports of sexual abuse by prison officials and staff against prison inmates, 1/3 of them were deemed substantiated. 15% of the assaults were still being investigated, and the study claims that prison officials determined that 55% of the claims by inmate victims were false or there was not enough evidence to support or reject the claims.

Sexual assaults by prison guards are also deemed to be underreported by prisoners, who likely are fearful of retaliation or being labeled a liar. Everyone doing time knows that prison officials will file disciplinary charges against prisoners for reporting abuse from prison staff, to discourage such reporting of abuse in the future.

If you would like more information on these statistics, contact the US Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Reports of Sexual abuse by prison guards at Juvenile Prisons are reported at ten times the rate they are in adult facilities. According to the study, there were 10 reported incidents of sexual abuse per 2000 youths at State run juvenile facilities. I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who is not surprised that there are a bunch of pedophiles working in our Juvenile Facilities as prison guards.

If you have been the victim of sexual abuse by a prison guard. You must report the abuse. It may be difficult, but not doing so puts others at risk. Get outside officials involved as well, DOC officials should never be the sole investigators of your sexual victimization. They may not always be objective.

You may be retaliated against for reporting such abuse. That is the price you must be willing to pay for doing what is right. Doing the right thing is not always easy, but you must still do it.

SCIENTIFIC PROOF OF TRANSSEXUALISM

Scientists in Holland at the Netherlands Institute of Brain Research Discovered in 1995 that transsexuals, that is, biological males who identify as women, have a strikingly different Brain structure than normal biological males.

The research was reported in the Journal NATURE and reported that a particular area of the brain that is normally 44 percent larger in men, is not the same size in male to female transsexuals. This area of the brain in MTF's is the same size as in biological females. The particular area of the brain in question is believed to influence gender identification, ones perception of oneself as male or female.

The authors of the study believe now that transsexuals are born the way they are. That these changes in the brain are the result of a genetic anomaly.

Although there have been some scientists who state that this research proves nothing, and that these changes in the brain structure may be due to the influence of estrogenic medications that the MTF's are taking, this suggestion is somewhat at odds with reality and probably wishful thinking by people with negative attitudes toward transsexuals. These pundits also claim the different brain structure is the result of treating GID with female hormones.

The idea that the changes in brain structure could be caused by MTF's taking female hormones seems absurd, since the brain has no estrogen or testosterone receptors, there is no way that brain tissue could increase or decrease in size based on hormonal influences that occur postnatally.

Currently, scientists at UCLA Geffen School of Medicine are doing genetic research to prove that transsexuals are born, not made. That we are the result of genetic defects which result in the development of a female brain structure.

The leading geneticist involved in the research at UCLA, Dr. Eric Vilain, hopes to prove this by doing MRI studies of the brains of transsexuals who have never taken female hormones, and then doing further MRI studies after these same subjects have begun female hormone therapy.

SOME FACTS ABOUT TRANSSEXUALISM AND INCARCERATION

Transsexual prisoners do not have a right to be housed in a facility consistent with their gender identity. If you have not had gender reassignment surgery, you will virtually always be classified by your birth sex, regardless of how long you have lived as a female, or how much feminization and procedures you have undergone. This often puts transsexual prisoners at great risk of predation by male inmates. People who have had gender reassignment surgery are generally classified according to their reassigned gender.

One method that is sometimes used to protect transsexual women who are at risk of violence due to being housed in male prisons is to separate them from male prisoners. This is done by placing them in what is called administrative segregation. There is nothing at all positive about administrative segregation. It is generally a placement that exists only in punitive segregation units and such units are known to be incubators of psychosis.

Some transsexual prisoners are able to obtain hormone therapy in prison. Others are not. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has a policy which allows hormone therapy, and states that they will maintain inmates on the hormone levels they were at prior to incarceration.

Even if a prison system does provide hormones however, there is no guarantee that they will be provided at the appropriate levels, and with the necessary physical and psychological support services. At times, prison officials flout their own policy and arbitrarily deny hormones even when they are technically allowed.

The issue of whether or not a transsexual inmate is entitled to hormone therapy while in prison has been litigated extensively in the federal courts, based on the established constitutional principle that it is a violation of the 8th amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for prison officials to exhibit deliberate indifference to a prisoners serious medical needs. Until the last few years however, in almost every case, courts have ruled in favor of prison officials.

More recently however, prisoners have had more success. The following cases may prove helpful.
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994); Farmer v. Haas, 900 F.2d 319 ( 7th circuit 1993); Maggert v. Hanks, 131 F..3d 670 ( 7th circuit 1997); South v. Gomez, 211 F.2d 1275, 2000 WL 222611 ( 9th circuit) ; Kosilek v. Nelson, 2000 WL 1346898 (D.Mass 2000); Kosilek v. Maloney, 221 F.Supp 2d 156 ( D. Mass 2002); Phillips v. Michigan Dept of Corrections 731 F. Supp 792 ( W..D. of Mich. 1990) affd 932 F2d 969 ( 6th Circuit 1991) granting preliminary injunction against prison officials ordering them to provide hormone therapy to a preop transsexual woman who had been taking estrogen for several years prior to transfer to another prison, and most recently,Konitzer V. Bartow et a/., case number 03-C-717, Eastern District of Wisconsin, in which Federal Judge Charles Clevert ordered the defendants to continue the plaintiffs (Konitzer, ie: yours truly) hormone therapy.