Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is in the process of modifying standards to 2003’s Prison Rape Elimination Act. Part of the changes is bringing the policies in line with the President’s executive order requiring the US government to only recognize two sexes. During this revision facilities including state prisons and jails, federal prisons, juvenile detention centers, and immigrant detention centers will not be inspected for standards meant to protect LGBTQ and intersex individuals. Just Detention International’s executive director Linda McFarlane said about this change:
“It’s going to make people less safe. And when facilities are less safe for the most vulnerable and marginalized, they’re less safe for everybody.”
JDI is a human rights advocacy group that works to end sexual abuse in detention centers, and McFarlane was an advocate of passing PRAE in 2003. LGBTQ prisoners were found to be more than six times more likely to face sexual assault while incarcerated, according to a 2015 survey by criminal justice group Black and Pink.
