Mick Hartley

New York is joining the rush to allow men into women's prisons. What could possibly go wrong? 

A New York state bill introduced into the assembly would allow biological males to be incarcerated in facilities that accord with their “self-attested gender identity” regardless of their “sex assigned at birth.” The bill follows a trend of similar legislation introduced in other states including California, Washington, and Maryland.

New York Assembly Bill 7001, which enacts the “gender identity respect, dignity and safety act,” does not require an incarcerated male to undergo surgery or be on hormone treatment to qualify for placement in a women’s prison, even if he has been convicted of rape or other acts of violence against women: “Placement shall not be conditioned upon the incarcerated individual's history of, consent to, intention to seek, or refusal to undergo any treatment or intervention regarding their sex characteristics or gender identity.”

The bill also grants incarcerated persons the right to be “addressed by correctional officers and staff in a manner that most closely aligns with such person's gender identity, including the name and pronouns specified by that person.”

A male who identifies as a woman may “transfer to a facility housing individuals of their assigned sex at birth at any time” but a female inmate does not have the right to refuse housing with a male.

"A female inmate does not have the right to refuse housing with a male." Well of course she doesn't. And if they get raped they'll be told that such a thing simply isn't possible, because that's a woman they're accusing – and if he says he's a woman, he's a woman, no matter the male genitals.

While the bill allows for transfer to a women’s prison to be denied if there is “clear and convincing evidence” that an incarcerated person “presents a current danger of committing gender-based violence against others,” the presence of intact male genitalia is forbidden as a reason to deny transfer. Among the “discriminatory reasons” for denial of transfer are “past or current sex characteristics, including chromosomes, genitals, gonads, other internal or external reproductive anatomy, secondary sex characteristics, or hormone function of the person whose housing placement is at issue…”

A female inmate’s fear for her safety is also not a valid reason to deny transfer. A typo-laden statement in the bill asserts that any denial of housing based on “complaints of other incarcerated individual's who do not wish to be housed with a non-cisgender or intersex person due to that person's gender identity identity or sex characteristics” constitutes a “discriminatory” reason to reject a request.

Ooh, mustn't be discriminatory. That's bad.