- Layleen Polanco, an Afro-Latinx transgender woman, was twenty-seven years old when prison guards found her dead in solitary confinement on Rikers Island.
- Medical professionals later confirmed that her death was caused by her epilepsy. Her family and supporters highlight that the prison was well aware of her condition and that solitary confinement was her death sentence. Those affiliated with the prison insist that she was not in solitary, but protective custody. They also claim that she had access to the same medical care as the other inmates.
- Grinberg and Manson
- They say: Andasheva, Arkles
- Arkles, an attorney with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, argues that solitary confinement does not protect transgender people against violence in prison, is unfairly mandated, and the excessively long terms that transgender people serve in solitary have devastating mental and physical health effects.
- Thesis: Transgender people are disproportionately placed in solitary confinement and are at greater risk of suffering negative consequences to their physical and mental health inside and once released from solitary.
- Medical professionals later confirmed that her death was caused by her epilepsy. Her family and supporters highlight that the prison was well aware of her condition and that solitary confinement was her death sentence. Those affiliated with the prison insist that she was not in solitary, but protective custody. They also claim that she had access to the same medical care as the other inmates.
- Claim 1: Trans people are disproportionately placed in solitary “as protection” from other prisoners.
- Violence can occur more intensely when trans women are placed in male prisons
- Solitary confinement is not effective protection because it increases the likelihood that trans people will be assaulted by guards (Black and Pink).
- Claim 2: There are negative physical and mental health consequences for trangender people placed in solitary confinement that are more extreme than for their cisgender peers.
- Solitary confinement is already defined as inhumane.
- Trans people experience extended periods of time in solitary confinement- far more than their cisgender peers- which exacerbates mental health problems (Black and Pink).
- Claim 3: It isn’t just trans people that face solitary confinement disproportionately, children in adult prisons experience it too.
- Stevenson’s example: a young boy placed in solitary because he was raped by grown men in prison
- WHY was he in adult prison? This example leads to the question of why these situations exist at all
- While cages exist, why are there no effective protection methods for those most vulnerable?
- Stevenson’s example: a young boy placed in solitary because he was raped by grown men in prison
- Claim 4: Other authors commented on why solitary confinement and the treatment of transgender prisoners, like Layleen Polanco, is wrong, but I believe that solitary confinement should be abolished completely and that inmates like Layleen and countless others should never go to prison in the first place.
- As others have said, if solitary confinement is so bad, why should it exist at all?
- Trans women are imprisoned for misdemeanor charges, unfair trials, and “crimes” that shouldn’t be carceral like sex work, drug use (and dealing), and being in poverty (“loitering,” sleeping outside, not having bus fare)
- On humane grounds → why do we punish these behaviors?
- Conclusion
- Summarize how thesis has been complicated in the course of the discussion, returning to key words with enriched understanding.
- Explain what’s at stake in the argument, aka why your analysis matters
- Optional: identify questions or unresolved issues that arise from your analysis
Pledge: AJD
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