CAP and MAP Release New Report on Transgender People in the Criminal Justice System

The Center for American Progress and the Movement Advancement Project have released a new report that illustrates ways in which the U.S. criminal justice system mirrors and perpetuates broad societal discrimination against transgender people. Created as a primer on key issues that arise for transgender people within the criminal justice system, the report, Unjust: How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails Transgender People, shows how bias-informed arrests, prosecutions, conditions of incarceration and related pre-release/post-release services increase risks for economic insecurity, homelessness, and reliance on survival economies. The authors partnered with the Advancement Project, Forward Together, JLUSA, National Center for Transgender Equality, National LGBTQ Task Force, and Transgender Law Center for this project.

Not surprisingly, transgender people of color represent most of those ensnared in this system. This new work is further support for the work of the Positive Justice Project, Teen SENSE and other projects focused on government institutions whose policies reflect the "perfect storm" of racism, homophobia, transphobia, HIVphobia and economic inequality. If we want to end the worst forms of oppression visited on those members of our communities with little or no political or social capital, we have no choice but to focus on those institutions, particularly prisons and detention centers, where they are disproportionately represented.

Thanks to CAP, MAP and their many partners for the ongoing advancement of this work.

You can read the new report here.