Trans woman beaten after being jailed with men, lawsuit against San Diego Sheriff's Department alleges
Is it a good thing, or the right thing that this woman was beaten up after she was placed in her "gone sarnit"/birth gender identity or would it have been safer for her if she would have been placed in her "I identify as this" gender identity?
It's a rock and a hard place situation with regards to prisons, and there's no one approach that will keep everyone safe.
You stick a Trans-woman in a male prison, the outcome is pretty predictable. They'll rape other males in there, so it goes without saying that someone who "looks much more female" in that environment is basically a sitting duck.
The inverse scenario has presented issues, where Trans-women being jailed with biological women end up abusing them. Thus the reason why after California passed SB 132, women's prisons now have to stock condoms, plan B contraception, and there have been an uptick in rapes as well as just risky sexual activity (even if consensual).
I can sympathize with why a Trans woman (who may be in there for something non-violent like a drug offense) would feel extremely vulnerable in a male prison.
But on the other hand, I can also sympathize with why a non-Trans woman would have some serious concerns about having to share a cell with a much bigger & stronger person (with a penis)
You basically have a predator-prey situation no matter which way you do it.
The only real way to prevent it as much as possible is to have 4 different housing arrangements. ciswomen, cismen, transwomen, transmen.
Or, the ideal scenario, quit locking people up for so much stupid trivial stuff...and for the people who do need to be in a facility for a while, don't have it be a totally dehumanizing environment (which basically creates more predators).
Sort of like the Scandinavian systems...they're still prisons, they're still a restriction on freedoms, but they at least treat them like humans instead of cattle.
You know who doesn't try to beat up someone else for their food? A guy who's allowed to have seconds if he's still hungry. You know who doesn't try to start fights in the yard? A person who's allowed to engage in more mentally stimulating activities and pursue constructive hobbies?
If we treated our prisoners like this (this is Norway), we'd probably have far less problems, in general, within our prison systems.
When Rehabilitation is the goal instead of just "they did something bad, so I want to see them suffer", prisons look like this
...instead of how they look in the US.
