The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was urged by Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and twelve other attorneys general to uphold a preliminary injunction that would prevent the Trump Administration from implementing a federal prison policy that would prohibit transgender women from being housed in women’s facilities.
Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined a group of 13 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Jones v. Bondi in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today, urging the court to safeguard the safety and health of transgender individuals who are incarcerated, according to the news release issued on Thursday, July 3. The attorneys general request that the court uphold the preliminary injunction issued by the lower court, which prevents the Trump Administration from enacting a policy that would take away correctional staff members’ discretion to put transgender individuals in women’s prisons.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), passed by Congress in 2003, established a zero-tolerance policy for sexual violence in U.S. prisons and mandated that national standards for detection, prevention, reduction, and punishment be developed and put into effect in order to prevent prison rape.
Through the submission of this brief, the coalition is seeking to safeguard transgender people’s rights.
The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) decided to eliminate the discretion of correctional personnel to place any transgender woman in a BOP women’s institution, a sudden reversal of long-standing policy and practice. After that, transgender lady Jane Jones sued the Trump Administration for its illegal policy, and she was given a preliminary injunction to stop the program while her case is still pending. The lower court’s injunction was appealed by the Trump Administration.
The attorneys general contend that BOP’s general policy will hurt those who are detained and that PREA’s provisions are crucial for the security and safety of transgender inmates as well as the prison community at large. They request in their brief that the court maintain the provisional injunction issued by the lower court.
