Bill Berkowitz for BuzzFlash: LGBTQ+ Americans Are Incarcerated at a Higher Rate Than the General Population
June 19, 2022
By Bill Berkowitz
Last year, the Prison Policy Initiative found that LGBTQ+ people “are overrepresented at every stage of [the] criminal justice system, starting with juvenile justice system involvement. They are arrested, incarcerated, and subjected to community supervision at significantly higher rates than straight and cisgender people. This is especially true for trans people and queer women.” And, once imprisoned, LGBTQ+ people often experience the threat of physical and sexual violence, institutional discrimination and neglect, and unmet mental and physical health needs.
A new Sentencing Project report titled “Incarcerated LGBTQ+ Youth and Adults,” finds that LGBTQ+ adults “are incarcerated at three times the rate of the total adult population … [and] LGBTQ+ youth’s representation among the incarcerated population is double their share of the general population.”
The report, written by The Sentencing Project’s Emma Stammen, Research Fellow, and Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst, defines the LGBTQ+ population as “comprised of people with non-heterosexual identities—those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and others—and people with non-cisgender identities—those who are trans and gender non-conforming.” The report (https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Incarcerated-LGBTQ-Youth-and-Adults.pdf.) applies the percentages of a 2012 National Inmate Survey to the 2020 incarcerated population.
Approximately 124,000 adults self-identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in U.S. prisons and jails, and over 6,000 adults self-identify as trans in state and federal prisons. LGBTQ+ youth’s representation among the incarcerated population—at 7,300 youth—is double their share of the general population. Women and girls drive the higher representation of LGBTQ+ people in prisons, jails, and youth facilities—as do LGBTQ+ people of color.
Factors driving these high rates of incarceration include “high rates of homelessness, poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and violence.” Once imprisoned, LGBTQ+ people “face physical, sexual, and verbal harassment and abuse, as well as a lack of gender-affirming housing, clothing, personal hygiene products, medical care, and mental health treatment.”
One in five trans women have experienced incarceration “at some point in their lives, as have nearly half (47%) of all Black trans people.”
Police bias, anti-trans laws, and Twenty percent of youth incarcerated in youth justice facilities identified as LGBTQ+. “Within youth justice facilities, youth of color comprise 67% of the overall population, but 85% of the incarcerated LGBTQ+ population.
According to the report, LGBTQ+ people “can also experience unwarranted pretrial detention due to discriminatory bail practices. The Center for Lesbian Rights reports that LGBTQ+ people receive higher bail amounts than others because they are perceived as flight risks or dangers to the community. Pretrial judges and parole board members may also fail to recognize chosen families as legitimate support networks for release, or acknowledge the responsibilities that LGBTQ+ people have to non-legally adopted children. Some research suggests that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be convicted of violent crimes that result in longer prison sentences than straight people. As sentencing reforms have mainly focused on non- violent convictions, LGBTQ+ people are left facing lengthy sentences with fewer chances for review and release.”
The Sentencing Project recommends that “To help alleviate these harms, states and the federal government should repeal laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ people, limit the use of solitary confinement, mandate access to gender-affirming health care in correctional facilities, and invest in drug and mental health treatment and reentry programs for LGBTQ+ youth and adults.”
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