Cabán questions gender misaligned intake and denials of gender-aligned housing
Council Member Cabán asks why transgender people are sent to gender-misaligned facilities and why nearly half of transfer requests are denied. Deputy Commissioner Nell Colon cites PREA standards and case-by-case determinations, saying DOC tries to align housing once aware of a person's preference.
Next, Councilmember McCubbon.
I'm out of breath, but I got back in time.
Good morning.
Thank you, Chair.
I'm going to start with questions about my bill.
The TGNC-NBI task force, they recommended that gender-aligned housing be the presumptive placement unless the individual incarcerated requests otherwise.
So the question is, why are transgender people being sent to gender misaligned facilities upon intake?
And why is DOC denying nearly half of all applications of requests for transfers to gender aligned facilities?
And that's based on y'all's own data.
That's the information we're getting from you.
So I'll start there.
Hi, my name is Nell Colon.
I'm the Deputy Commissioner of Programs and Community Partnerships.
And just for context, within the Division of Programs and Community Partnerships, the LGBTQ Affairs Unit is housed.
And so just to speak to this, I mean, when considering placement, the department does, one of the primary focuses is
complying with the national PRIA standards.
Each determination is made on a case-by-case basis, but I think to what you just indicated is that, yes, there are times where
somebody may have an indication and when they're transported from court to a site, it may not be the right site, but once we become aware,
and a conversation happens and a person is able to state their preference based on their gender identity, we make our best attempt to make sure that they're in a gender-aligned facility.
But at this point, half of those applications are, more than half are being denied.
And to your point about the PRIA guidelines, we had a hearing on this last term, and specifically we had conversations about how
Priya is obviously meant to protect people, but it is misinterpreted by folks in the DOC and outside in ways that actually disproportionately harm transgendered individuals.
And that's something that needs to be reassessed.
And that's also a reason why this task force is so incredibly important.