Joint News Release: Changes to the way transgender offenders are accommodated in Canada’s federal prison system

January 31, 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario – The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS)

An important collaboration spanning several years between the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) has resulted in changes to the way transgender offenders are accommodated in Canada’s federal prison system.

These changes come in the wake of Parliament’s recent change to the Canadian Human Rights Act, which added “gender identity or expression” to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.

In the context of its daily operations, CSC will continue to provide education and awareness to staff and offenders and work to ensure that the health, safety and dignity of everyone is respected at all times. New operational practices for CSC include:

  • Placing an offender in a men’s or women’s institution according to their gender identity, if it is their preference, regardless of their anatomy or gender on their identification documents, unless there are overriding health or safety concerns which cannot be resolved.
  • Using an offender’s preferred name and pronoun in all oral interaction and written documentation.
  • Allowing offenders to purchase authorized items from CSC catalogues for either men or women if there are no safety, health or security concerns according to the security level of their institution.
  • Taking steps to maximize the privacy and confidentiality of information related to an offender’s gender identity. Information about an offender’s gender identity will only be shared with those directly involved with the offender’s care, and only when relevant.
  • Offering individualized protocols for offenders who seek to be accommodated on the basis of gender identity or expression to ensure, among other things:
    • the safety, privacy and dignity of an offender when they access shower and/or toilet facilities; and
    • the choice of male or female staff to conduct frisk and strip searches, urinalysis testing, and camera surveillance.

All three organizations look forward to further collaboration and successful implementation of these changes. As CSC updates its individual policies, it will continue to count on the valuable contribution of correctional experts and stakeholders, such as the CHRC and PLS, labour partners, academia and experts in gender and identity issues.

For more information, please read CSC’s Interim Policy Bulletin on Gender Identity or Expression.

Quotes

“We are overjoyed that CSC is making so many positive changes that recognize the human rights of trans people in the correctional system. These changes will improve the safety and dignity of transgender federal offenders in Canada, affecting every aspect of their daily lives.”
-Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director, Prisoners’ Legal Services

“We have heard the concerns raised by trans individuals and advocates, and we are pleased to see these significant improvements become a reality, for the rights of transgender offenders, and their families. This is about respect and human dignity—something that every person, including those in our prison system, is entitled to.”
—Marie-Claude Landry, Ad. E., Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission

“These changes ensure that offenders who identify as transgender are afforded the same protections, dignity and treatment as others. CSC is committed to building a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for everyone, including transgender staff, offenders, volunteers and visitors.”
—Don Head, Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada

Associated Links

CSC Interim Policy Bulletin on Gender Identity or Expression

CHRC Website – Prisoner Rights

Prisoner’s Legal Services

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Media Contacts

Prisoners’ Legal Services Media Relations
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director:
604-636-0470
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca

Canadian Human Rights Commission Media Relations
613-943-9118
communications@chrc-ccdp.gc.ca

Correctional Service Canada Media Relations
613-992-7711
media@csc-scc.gc.ca

 

 

Prisoners’ Legal Services
302-7818 6th Street

Burnaby, BC

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

 

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Donate Button with PayPal

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at  info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!

Post Title

Transgender Prisoners

TRANSGENDER PRISONERS

 

 

The Correctional Service of Canada acknowledges the collaborative role of Prisoners’ Legal Services and the Canadian Human Rights Commission in policy reform for transgender prisoners. See the press release here.

The West Coast Prison Justice Society has worked for over 10 years assisting transgender prisoners with human rights complaints concerning access to gender confirming surgery, placement by gender identity and rights to privacy in relation to cell sharing, strip searches, urinalysis testing and washroom facilities.

In 2015, the West Coast Prison Justice Society filed a human rights complaint against the Correctional Service of Canada seeking systemic remedies for all transgender prisoners in Canada to ensure that their human rights, safety and dignity are protected.

On January 2, 2018, the Correctional Service of Canada promulgated Interim Policy Bulletin 584 on gender identity and expression. The West Coast Prison Justice Society is very pleased with this interim policy which ensures that transgender prisoners:

  • are placed in a men’s or women’s institution according to gender identity (unless there are overriding safety or security issues that cannot be resolved);
  • are able to receive clothing and personal items in accordance with their gender identity or expression;
  • are given the choice of the gender of officers who search them or conduct urinalysis testing of them;
  • are addressed by their preferred names and pronouns (unless the legal name is required);
  • are not required to share a cell with another prisoner if their gender identity would make them vulnerable to violence; and
  • are provided private and safe shower and washroom facilities whenever possible.

The interim policy will be in place until the relevant Commissioner’s Directives can be amended to reflect these changes.

Also since the West Coast Prison Justice Society filed its representative human rights complaint, CSC policy now requires health services to be provided in accordance with the current World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care. These standards allow people to meet the “real life test” of living in their gender for one year in prison, rather than requiring the test to be met in the community.

Before these policy changes, transgender prisoners were placed in men’s or women’s prisons according to their genitals rather than by gender identity. Vulnerable transgender women were forced to live in men’s prisons where they were at constant risk of sexual assault. CSC policy also put transgender prisoners at risk of suffering other dehumanizing forms of harassment and discrimination, including being strip searched by officers of the opposite gender, or being referred to by the wrong name and inappropriate gender pronouns. Prisoners who required gender affirming surgery who had not lived in the community for a continuous year, despite living in their gender for their entire adult lives, were denied medically necessary surgery. Click here to see our earlier policy reform recommendations.

Prisoners’ Legal Services
302-7818 6th Street

Burnaby, BC

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

 

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Donate Button with PayPal

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at  info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!