NPR

New Jersey Prisoners Will Be Placed Based On Gender Identity Under A New Policy

As part of civil lawsuit settlement, the New Jersey Department of Corrections has agreed to make it customary for prisoners to be assigned a prison stay in line with their gender identity.
Sonia Doe, pictured here, reached a settlement with the New Jersey Department of Corrections that will make it standard for the state to assign prison stays to a person based on their gender identity, not the sex assigned at birth.

For 18 months, Sonia Doe faced humiliating strip searches in front of male guards. Male prisoners exposed themselves to her. She faced sexual harassment, discrimination and physical threats from corrections officers and inmates alike.

Doe, who is transgender, has lived her life publicly as a woman since 2003. Yet, Doe — a pseudonym used for her lawsuit — was transported to four different men's prisons across New Jersey from March 2018 to August 2019.

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