Description

Racialized Criminality and the Imprisoned Trans Body: Adjudicating Access to Gender-Related Medical Treatment in Prisons

Imprisoned trans people are frequently denied access to gender-related medical treatment by prison administrations, which imprisoned trans people try to challenge in various ways including through lawsuits. This article critically reads a sample of trans prison legal decisions addressing lawsuits brought by imprisoned trans people attempting to gain access to gender-related medical treatment. It argues that because of these trans people’s location within the prison system discourses of racialized criminality and nonheteronormativity structure courts’ readings of their bodies and their rights to this care.

criminal justice system; transgender; transsexual; sex-reassignment surgery; prisoners

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 37, No. 1 (2010-11): 53-68.