Jan Logie There’s hope a new report which finds transgender prisoners’ rights are being ignored will speed up the Government’s work to ensure their safety. Currently Corrections treats prisoners based on the gender on their birth certificate, something the In its report, it says transgender people are especially vulnerable in prisons due to the disconnect between their state-recognised gender and their personal, inherent gender identity. Green Party MP Jan Logie has been hot on the issue and wrote to Corrections Minister Anne Tolley earlier this year, noting the growing public concern, and offering to meet and share some of the solutions that seem to be working overseas. She was told the Corrections Department was considering ‘whether current policy is appropriate to provide for the safety, care and rehabilitation of vulnerable prisoners’ and that the work was nearing completion and that Tolley would be in touch once it was concluded. Logie says the Equal Justice Project report “will let the Minister know we are still watching and expecting a solution that does not restrict medical treatment or rely on surgery as the test for gender classification in housing. “I am very much looking forward to seeing this policy change in the very near future.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 5th July 2013 - 12:48pm