“The past year has seen a number of high-profile queer prison abuse cases in the U.S., particularly dealing with transgender women. In one of the extreme examples, the Colorado Department of Corrections has refused to house transgender inmate Lindsay Saunders-Velez with women even after she has been raped in custody twice. Her lawsuit is ongoing. In Illinois, 27-year-old Strawberry Hampton is also suing the Illinois Department of Corrections for the fourth time for a case that involves multiple sexual assault allegations, torment by guards and abuse so graphic and triggering it can’t be detailed in a news report. Officials in the case deny any wrongdoing. In March, transgender inmate Passion Star settled her case with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice over the department’s years of failure to protect her from rape and harm. Among the central demands of Tuesday’s national strike is an end to free and low-paid prison labor. But LGBTQ prison abolition organization Black & Pink Founder Jason Lydon says even low-paid jobs are often denied to queer and HIV-positive people on the inside because they face discrimination. “All of the oppression that exists outside of prison, exists inside but is magnified ten hundred times,” said Lydon. Compounding that is the fact that many LGBTQ people are isolated in solitary confinement when they can’t be safely placed with the general population. There, Lydon points out, queer people are denied the opportunity to seek jobs inside at all.”
— National Prison Strike Could Be Watershed Moment For Queer Prisoners by Kate Sosin
Good info on the horrors faced by incarcerated trans women. Also watch out for Black & Pink who on the surface organize to protect black trans women but who in actuality use and abuse those very women they purport to prioritize:
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