Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T12:33:06.361Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Same Difference: The “Dilemma of Difference” and the Incarceration of Transgender Prisoners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Jennifer Sumner  and
Lori Sexton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the “dilemma of difference” transgender prisoners pose and face within a sex-segregated prison system organized around the pursuit of safety and security. Our analysis uses data from a study of the culture and experiences of transgender prisoners in four men's prisons. Using qualitative data from interviews with transgender prisoners, focus groups with prisoners, and focus groups with staff, our findings reveal a common contention that transgender prisoners are (according to staff) and should be (according to prisoners) treated like everyone else, despite their unique situations. This further demonstrates the stakes that this dilemma carries for the prison regime and transgender prisoners' roles in challenging it without engaging in overt resistance—which carries high stakes for them. Accordingly, we elucidate how the rigidity of an institutional structure built on inherent contradictions can have the potential to complicate the achievement of institutional goals.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , Summer 2016 , pp. 616 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Abel, Richard L. 1995. Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle Against Apartheid 1980–1994. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Arkles, Gabriel. 2009. Safety and Solidarity Across Gender Lines: Rethinking Segregation of Transgender People in Detention. Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review 18 (2): 515–60.Google Scholar
Beck, Allen J., Ramona, R. Rantala, and Rexroat, Jessica. 2014. Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2009–2011 (NCJ 243904). Washington, DC: US Department of Justice. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svraca0911.pdf (accessed August 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Bloom, Barbara, Barbara, Owen, and Covington, Stephanie. 2003. Gender‐Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders. Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Borchert, Jay. 2015 . A New Iron Closet: Failing to Extend the Spirit of Lawrence v. Texas to Prisons and Prisoners. In The War on Sex, ed. Halperin, David and Hoppe, Trevor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Borchert, Jay. Forthcoming. State Correctional Department Leaders, Deference, and the Persistent Socio‐Legal Control of Consensual Sex Among Prisoners. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Mary. 1996. Resistance and Compliance in Women's Prisons: Towards a Critique of Legitimacy. Critical Criminology 7 (2): 5–19.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Mary, and Carrabine, Eamonn. 2001. Reassessing Resistance: Race, Gender and Sexuality in Prison. Punishment & Society 3 (4): 501–15.Google Scholar
Britton, Dana M. 1997. Gendered Organizational Logic: Policy and Practice in Men's and Women's Prisons. Gender & Society 11 (6): 796–818.Google Scholar
Britton, Dana M. 2003. At Work in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered Organization. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, George Richard, and McDuffie, Everett. 2009. Health Care Policies Addressing Transgender Inmates in Prison Systems in the United States. Journal of Correctional Health Care 15 (4): 280–91.Google Scholar
Calavita, Kitty. 2010. Invitation to Law and Society: An Introduction to the Study of Real Law. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Calavita, Kitty, and Jenness, Valerie. 2013. Inside the Pyramid of Disputes: Naming Problems and Filing Grievances in California Prisons. Social Problems 60 (1): 50–80.Google Scholar
California Correctional Peace Officers Association. 2014. Home. http://www.ccpoa.org/(accessed August 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Charmaz, Kathy. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Crewe, Ben. 2007. Power, Adaptation and Resistance in a Late‐Modern Men's Prison. British Journal of Criminology 47:256–75.Google Scholar
Dolovich, Sharon. 2011. Strategic Segregation in the Modern Prison. American Criminal Law Review 48 (1): 1–110.Google Scholar
Dolovich, Sharon. 2012. Two Models of the Prison: Accidental Humanity and Hypermasculinity in the L.A. County Jail. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 102 (4): 965–1118.Google Scholar
Einwohner, Rachel L. 2006. Identity Work and Collective Action in a Repressive Context: Jewish Resistance on the “Aryan Side” of the Warsaw Ghetto. Social Problems 53 (1): 38–53.Google Scholar
Emmer, Pascal, Lowe, Adrian, and Barrett Marshall, R. 2011. This Is a Prison, Glitter Is Not Allowed: Experiences of Trans and Gender Variant People in Pennsylvania's Prison Systems. A Report by the Hearts on a Wire Collective. http//www.galaei.org/documents/thisisaprison/pdf (accessed August 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Engel, David M. 1993. Origin Myths: Narratives of Authority, Resistance, Disability, and Law. Law & Society Review 27 (4): 785–826.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, and Silbey, Susan S. 1998. The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm M., and Simon, Jonathan. 1992. The New Penology: Notes on the Emerging Strategy of Corrections and Its Implications. Criminology 30 (4): 449–74.Google Scholar
Gaes, Gerald G., Camp, Scott D., Nelson, Julianne B., and Saylor, William G. 2004. Measuring Prison Performance: Government Privatization and Accountability. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Gomez, Placido G. 2010. The Dilemma of Difference: Race as a Sentencing Factor. Golden Gate University Law Review 24 (2): 357–86.Google Scholar
Grant, Jaime M., Mottet, Lisa A., Tanis, Justin, Harrison, Jack, Herman, Jody L., and Keisling, Mara. 2011. Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Karen. 2011. Jail Has New Policy for Transgender Inmates. NBC Chicago, April 9, http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/cook-county-jail transgender‐inmates‐119516094.html (accessed August 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Herbert, Rosemary. 1985. Women's Prisons: An Equal Protection Evaluation. Yale Law Journal 94 (5): 1182–1206.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Susan F., and Lazarus‐Black, Mindie. 1994. Performance and Paradox: Exploring Law's Role in Hegemony and Resistance. In Contested States: Law, Hegemony and Resistance, ed. Susan, F. Hirsh and Lazarus‐Black, Mindie, 1–31. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Humm, Andy. 2014. Rikers Jail to Open Transgender Unit. Gay City News, August 6. http://gaycitynews.nyc/rikers‐jail‐open‐transgender‐unit/(accessed October 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Jenness, Valerie. 2002−2003. Engendering Hate Crime Policy: Gender, the “Dilemma of Difference,” and the Creation of Legal Subjects. Journal of Hate Studies 2:73–97.Google Scholar
Jenness, Valerie, and Grattet, Ryken. 2001. Examining the Boundaries of Hate Crime Law: Disabilities and the Dilemma of Difference. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 91 (3): 653–98.Google Scholar
Jenness, Valerie, Maxson, Cheryl, Matsuda, Kristy, and Sumner, Jennifer. 2007. Violence in California Correctional Facilities: An Empirical Examination of Sexual Assault. Report submitted to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Sacramento, CA. http://ucicorrections.seweb.uci.edu/pdf/FINAL_PREA_REPORT.pdf (accessed March 15, 2016).Google Scholar
Jenness, Valerie, Sexton, Lori, and Sumner, Jennifer. 2011. Transgender Inmates in California Prisons: An Empirical Study of a Vulnerable Population. Report submitted to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Sacramento, CA.Google Scholar
Jenness, Valerie, Sumner, Jennifer, Sexton, Lori, and Alamillo‐Luchese, Nikkas. 2014. Cinderella, Wilma Flintstone, and Xena the Warrior Princess. In Understanding Diversity: Celebrating Difference, Challenging Inequality, ed. Renzetti, Claire, Curran, Daniel, and Kennedy‐Bergen, Raquel, 107–24. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Allyn & Beacon.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dirk. 1987. Women Blend in with Men at Illinois Prison. New York Times, June 1. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/01/us/womenblendin-with-men-at illinois prison.html (accessed August 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Mahan, Sue, Mabli, Jerome, Johnston, Barbara, Trask, Barbara, and Hilek, John. 1989. Sexually Integrated Prisons: Advantages, Disadvantages and Some Recommendations. Criminal Justice Policy Review 3 (2): 149–58.Google Scholar
Milovanovic, Dragan, and Thomas, Jim. 1989. Overcoming the Absurd: Prisoner Litigation as Primitive Rebellion. Social Problems 36 (1): 48–60.Google Scholar
Martha, Minow. 1987. The Supreme Court 1986 Term. Foreword: Justice Engendered. Harvard Law Review 101 (10): 10–95.Google Scholar
Martha, Minow. 1990. Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pasko, Lisa. 2010−2011. Setting the Record “Straight”: Girls, Sexuality, and the Juvenile Correctional System. Social Justice 37 (1): 7–26.Google Scholar
Rafter, Nicole. 2004. Partial Justice: Women, Prisons, and Social Control. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Reiter, Keramet. 2014. The Pelican Bay Hunger Strike: Resistance Within the Structural Constraints of a U.S. Supermax Prison. South Atlantic Quarterly 113 (3): 579–611.Google Scholar
Richman, Kimberly D. 2006. LGBT Family Rights, Legal Consciousness, and the Dilemma of Difference. In The New Civil Rights Research: A Constitutive Approach, ed. Fleury‐Steiner, Benjamin and Beth Nielsen, Laura, 77–99. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Rubin, Ashley T. 2014. Resistance or Friction: Understanding the Significance of Prisoners' Secondary Adjustments. Theoretical Criminology 19 (1): 23–42.Google Scholar
Sabo, Don. 2001. Doing Time, Doing Masculinity: Sports and Prison. In Prison Masculinities, ed. Sabo, Don, Kupers, Terrt A., and London, Willie, 61–66. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin. 1990. “… The Law Is All Over:” Power, Resistance, and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor. Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 2:343–79.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sparks, Richard, Bottoms, Anthony, and Hay, Will. 1996. Prisons and the Problem of Order. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sumner, Jennifer, and Jenness, Valerie. 2014. Gender Integration in Sex‐Segregated U.S. Prisons: The Paradox of Transgender Correctional Policy. In Handbook of LGBT Communities, Crime, and Justice, ed. Peterson, Dana and Panfill, Vanessa R., 229–59. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Sumner, Jennifer, and Sexton, Lori. 2015. Lost in Translation: Looking for Transgender Identity in Women's Prisons and Locating Aggressors in Prisoner Culture. Critical Criminology 23 (1): 1–20.Google Scholar
Sykes, Gresham. 1958. The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sylvia Rivera Law Project. 2007. “It's War in Here”: A Report on the Treatment of Transgender and Intersex People in New York State Men's Prisons. http://archive.srlp.org/resources/pubs/warinhere (accessed August 18 2015).Google Scholar
Toch, Hans. 1998. Hypermasculinity and Prison Violence. In Masculinities and Violence, ed. Bowker, L. H., 168–78. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Ward, David A., and Kassebaum, Gene G. 1965. Women's Prison: Sex and Social Structure. New York: Aldine.Google Scholar
White, Lucie E. 1990. Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. Buffalo Law Review 38 (1): 1–58.Google Scholar
Deblasio v. Johnson, 128 F. Supp. 2d 315 (E.D. VA. 2000).Google Scholar
Stevens v. Williams, WL 916991 (D. Or. 2008).Google Scholar
Tates v. Blanas, WL 23864868 (E.D. Cal. 2002).Google Scholar
Prison Rape Elimination Act, 2003, 42 USC § 15601.Google Scholar
Deblasio v. Johnson, 128 F. Supp. 2d 315 (E.D. VA. 2000).Google Scholar
Stevens v. Williams, WL 916991 (D. Or. 2008).Google Scholar
Tates v. Blanas, WL 23864868 (E.D. Cal. 2002).Google Scholar
Prison Rape Elimination Act, 2003, 42 USC § 15601.Google Scholar