Trans, Scared, and Stuck in the Men’s Unit: Under Eric Adams, an initiative to protect trans women at Rikers dissolves.
New York Magazine, January 24, 2023: Trans, Scared, and Stuck in the Men’s Unit: Under Eric Adams, an initiative to protect trans women at Rikers dissolves.
“Just weeks later, Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, swept into the mayor’s office promising a pro-law enforcement agenda that included supporting the old guard that had long decided how things ran on the island. Adams replaced the reform-minded jails commissioner Vincent Schiraldi with his own pick, Louis Molina, whose administration immediately pushed out top department leaders supportive of the LGBTQ+ unit and shelved a draft policy directive aimed at getting more trans and gender-nonconforming detainees into gender-aligned housing.
“This institutional reversal has stranded numerous trans and gender-nonconforming detainees in dangerous, male housing units for weeks or months on end, subjecting many to egregious forms of physical and sexual violence, according to dozens of internal emails, Department of Correction records, and interviews with more than 20 people who work or live in city jails, including current and former corrections staffers, incarcerated trans women, jail guards and attorneys.
“For the fledgling LGBTQ+ Affairs Unit, Molina’s change in direction proved devastating. Their programming for the community came to a halt, and they lost their say in critical housing decisions, jail insiders say.
“In just six months under the new administration, two members of the tight-knit unit quit in protest, leaving the team with just one employee.
“Those two staffers and several other former corrections employees, disturbed by how the agency reversed course on trans rights, are sharing their stories here for the first time.”
Additional reading:
CBS New York, January 25, 2023: City Council hearing held on rights of transgender detainees on Rikers Island
