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Prison x-ray of transgender people in Spain: 103 prisoners divided into modules for men, women and mixed

2023-04-03T15:46:11.417Z


Trans people represent 0.18% of the prison population in Spain, and their location in prison responds to individualized criteria


View of the Lledorners prison, in Barcelona. Susanna Sáez (EFE)

Last week several media outlets assured that six inmates from the Villabona Penitentiary Center (Asturias) had requested to change their sex in the Civil Registry after the entry into force, on March 1, of the new trans law, with the supposed

end

of to occupy a cell in the women's unit.

However, the Ministry of the Interior is only aware of one request, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, during the government control session on Tuesday in the Senate.

Sources from this organization also recall that "communication with other administrations or organizations is a right of inmates, who can carry out this process both openly and in a sealed envelope without there being a record of the content of their requests."

Despite the official denial, the news triggered hoaxes and misinformation about this group, as has been the case since the regulation began to be processed.

In this case, about their stay in prisons, the treatment they are given, what procedure Penitentiary Institutions follow with these people or if something is going to change after the approval of the law.

EL PAÍS has asked the Ministry of the Interior and the Departments of Justice of Catalonia and the Basque Country, the two autonomous communities that have transferred the management of the prisons in their territories, the figures and procedures that are followed.

How many trans people are serving sentences in Spain?

The statistics of the three administrations put the number of trans people currently incarcerated at 103.

Of these, 61 are women and 39 are men.

In addition, there are two non-binary people and one more trans person, the only one in the Basque Country, of whom the Department of Equality and Justice of the Basque Government has declined to provide information about the gender with which they want to be identified to avoid that, when being “a single person”, any data that would allow identification.

The total number represents 0.18% of the entire prison population which, as of December 31, totaled 55,751 inmates (51,780 men and 3,971 women).

How are trans people distributed within prisons?

Of the 61 trans women who are serving sentences, 26 are in women's modules, 31 in cells located in male areas, and 4 in mixed modules.

Of the 39 trans men, 29 are in women's modules, 9 in spaces for men and one is in a mixed module, according to the data provided by the three administrations.

Of the two non-binary people, one is in a male module and the second, in a female one.

Regarding the trans person who is serving a sentence in the Basque Country, the Executive of Iñigo Urkullu has declined to inform which module she is in.

Why are there trans men in women's modules and trans women in men's modules?

The three administrations coincide in pointing out that transsexuality is not a determining factor in deciding which module an inmate goes to.

Although they all take it into account, the decision on the final location takes into account a set of factors, as it happens with any other prisoner.

Sources from Penitentiary Institutions explain that "the most beneficial treatment level" is sought, that is, what is considered to be best for the inmate himself and his subsequent reinsertion.

From the Basque Country they explain that in the situation of the trans person within their penitentiary system "he has been treated taking into account his personal circumstances and, especially, his own will".

In Catalonia they operate in a similar way.

In addition, as it happens with any inmate, the casuistry of trans people in prisons is extensive: there are people who already enter with the change in the Civil Registry made.

Others, without him.

Some have not completed it, but have already begun the hormonal process.

There are those who have already made the sex change.

"Each trans person who enters prison has a different context, like any other inmate, and that context is always attended to in each case," they emphasize from Penitentiary Institutions.

How do you decide which module the prisoners will go to?

Both Penitentiary Institutions and the Department of Justice of Catalonia and the Basque Country work in a similar way: following the principle of "scientific individualization" which is "the one that prevails for all prisoners", as pointed out by the Interior, that is, case by case.

Each person is referred to one module or another after a multidisciplinary study of their situation and its circumstances, in which different prison professionals such as psychologists, social workers, health professionals or educators intervene.

In addition, both the Penitentiary Institutions and the Department of Justice of Catalonia have two internal protocols that were drawn up years ago with the aim of avoiding discriminatory treatment for these inmates.

The current instruction on Penitentiary Institutions was approved in

2006, during the socialist governments of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

It was drafted to replace a previous one, from 2001, which had established the “apparent sexual identity” – that is, the external appearance – as a criterion to decide where a trans person entered.

The 2006 document corrected this and established the recognition of the felt gender of the trans person by the Penitentiary Administration.

It clarified that this did not imply "a new legal identity, inside or outside the prisons", but rights such as "personal dignity and the corresponding respect for recognized identity, including internment in the corresponding centers or modules". .

What was an advance then, today clashes with the philosophy of

trans law

.

The instruction alludes to "mandatory medical and psychological assessment reports" for trans people who are going to enter prison, who have not yet made the change in the Registry and want to be recognized with their felt sex, while the new law establishes as One of its objectives is to depathologize transsexuality in the administrative process —since it is not a disease and this was already recognized by the World Health Organization in 2018—, for which it incorporates gender self-determination, that is, that a person can change their name and sex in the DNI only with your will.

To do this, he withdrew as requirements to be able to do so, precisely, both the medical report that endorsed gender dysphoria and the two years of hormonal therapy that these people had to prove.

The protocol of the Generalitat of Catalonia is different from that of Penitentiary Institutions.

In 2019, the Departments of Justice and Social Affairs and Family drafted an instruction with the objective that the Catalan prison system have "the maximum sensitivity towards this group" and guarantee that "transgender people inmates in prisons are treated fairly appropriate to the gender with which they identify.

From that moment on, transgender people in Catalan prisons can change their names inside prison without the medical reports they previously requested, and they can also request transfer to a center with inmates of a different sex.

Until then, "the classification was made solely based on the sex indicated on the identity document," they explain from the Catalan government.

Even so, the final decision on admission or transfer to another center will depend on the reports from the penitentiary center and the assessment of the Classification Service of the Department of Justice, for which they take into account "the crime and the prison record (to be especially assessed crimes of gender violence and/or crimes against the sexual freedom of women and children), the motivation and the risks or advantages that the transfer would entail for the safety of the applicant himself.”

In fact, the instruction specifies that even for those people who already have the change in the Civil Registry, "it may be the case that it is not recommended" to change the module.

For trans people who decide to "start living in a different gender from the one assigned at birth" once in prison, the instruction indicates that it should be observed if that decision "is maintained consistently and permanently, after an evolution (never more than three months), and does not respond to a specific or instrumental demand, especially in the cases of requesting a change to units or centers other than the gender assigned at birth, for example, a man who expresses the sense of gender as a woman and wants a change in women's units or centers, or vice versa”.

How does the 'trans law' affect prison policy?

Last week, the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, assured in the Senate that the

trans law

"does not affect prison policy", since the regulations establish the bureaucratic channel for gender self-determination only in the Civil Registry, so that legally the law and the instruction of Penitentiary Institutions do not collide.

However, both standards show a disagreement.

The first has administratively depathologized transsexuality while the second requests medical and psychological reports.

In this sense, a change is possible, taking into account that the

trans law

has barely been in force for a month while the instruction is almost two decades old.

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Source: elparis

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