Biden Justice Department puts incarcerated women at risk | Opinion

The Biden administration seems so utterly obsessed with gender ideology that even liberal-minded Americans should ask whether hard-won civil rights are at risk. As part of Pride Month, top officials have pledged to “devote all resources” to the fight to advance LGBTQI+ interests. But what the executive branch has failed to state is that its disproportionate, if not obsessive, focus on transgender issues threatens other rights explicitly guaranteed by federal law, such as the rights of incarcerated women.

As former attorneys in the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section, we are particularly concerned that the Administration is selectively enforcing the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) to the detriment of these women.

Background: On his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to review and revise, suspend, or promulgate rules and guidelines to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity into the legal concept of discrimination on the basis of sex. Agency heads were instructed to consult with the Attorney General as they develop their plans.

Following this directive, federal agencies issued various statutes regarding gender identity. Employers must “affirm” gender identity in the workplace through “preferred pronoun” speech codes and tolerance policies in bathrooms. Title IX, a law that required equal opportunities for women in education, including school sports., It’s being phased out. Doctors must perform so-called “sex reassignment” surgeries, insurance companies must cover the costs, and federal funding for foster parents will now depend on whether the foster parents acknowledge their child’s LGBTQI+ identity and are willing to help them with a “gender transition.”

No one in the administration seems to be considering how its obsession with transgender rights might violate other civil rights, such as CRIPA, a law that protects incarcerated people.

The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section is responsible for enforcing CRIPA by investigating state agencies and bringing civil lawsuits to protect prisoners’ rights, including the right to be protected from sexual abuse.

In 2020, the division opened a CRIPA investigation at a New Jersey women’s correctional facility to ensure that prisoners were protected from sexual abuse by facility staff. Pursuant to a settlement agreement with the ACLU, New Jersey adopted a system-wide policy of housing prisoners based on gender identity rather than sex. About a month later, the division reached a settlement and closed its investigation. Within a year, prisoners had reported cases of sexual assault by transgender prisoners, one of whom had impregnated two women in the prison. Incredibly, the division has not taken any steps to reopen the investigation or enforce the terms of the settlement, even though the settlement requires the facility to “ensure that prisoners are protected from harm from sexual abuse and sexual harassment.”

In 2021, the division filed a conflict of interest statement in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center, warning Georgia prison officials that housing male transgender inmates with other men could violate the state’s constitutional obligation to “protect prisoners from sexual abuse.” That same year, the division launched a statewide investigation of Georgia prisons, including into their treatment of transgender inmates.

Is there anyone in the Department of Justice concerned about the safety and well-being of female prisoners housed alongside transgender men? They should be.

For example, in California, a transgender-identifying inmate with a “lengthy criminal history” was transferred to a women’s prison and is now accused of raping a female inmate in a shower. The inmate was initially transferred to a women’s prison thanks to California’s Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act, which requires that incarcerated transgender people be classified and housed based on “their sense of health and safety, regardless of whether it aligns with their gender identity.” To quote former corrections officer Hector Bravo, “Initially, I was hopeful that the new policy would provide transgender-identifying inmates with the protections and facilities they needed.” Instead, what he found was “a system riddled with neglect and disregard for both inmate safety and the welfare of corrections officers.”

Consider this startling detail: Instead of protecting women from sexual assault by inmates with penises, a California women’s prison Handing out condoms.

Most prison assaults do not make news headlines. We have every reason to believe these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. We call on the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section to open investigations into states that incarcerate biological males in women’s prisons. Simply put, it is unjust and unconstitutional for the Administration and state authorities to prioritize gender ideology over protecting the safety of incarcerated people.

Andrea Picciotti Beyer is director of the Conscience Project. Eric Kniffin is a research associate at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.