#JusticeforJane

Imagine you were forced to spend 22 hours a day in a cinder block box.
Imagine someone watching you defecate. Someone watching you shower.
Imagine you as your only company. Imagine your conversations.
Imagine ticking the number of days on the wall, waiting until your term in solitary is up. But you haven’t officially been charged with anything.
You were only supposed to be there for a few days.
Those days have turned into weeks. It’s bordering on months now.
Jane Doe, a 16-year-old transgender girl of color in Connecticut, doesn’t have to imagine. It happened to her.
The events leading up to Jane’s incarceration seem clear enough — a Department of Children and Families worker illegally restrained her, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Jane, who had been sexually assaulted by DCF staff members previously, responded violently. A DCF staff member was reportedly fired because of the incident.
Meanwhile, Jane was sent off to an adult prison. No charges have been filed.
Jane’s story isn’t unique.
Though only 2.7 percent of the general public experiences incarceration, 16 percent of transgender people have been to jail or prison.
This rate is almost double for transgender Native Americans and almost triple for black transgender people.
It is estimated that, on average, half of all transgender people have been victims of sexual violence, many while they were imprisoned.  
But as CeCe McDonald, a black transgender woman who was unfairly jailed, pointed out following her release, prisons suck for everyone, not just transgender people.
Instead of rehabilitation, American prisons have institutionalized abuse.
Police profiling has something to do with it.
Transgender women are arrested for things like “manifesting prostitution,” a charge that basically amounts to looking like a prostitute.
Society categorically rejects transgender people.
Upon coming out as transgender, more than half of transgender people were rejected by their families.
Twenty percent have been homeless.
They experience twice the average rate of unemployment, as most states do not prohibit discrimination against employees based on gender non-conformity.
Because of the overwhelming rejection from mainstream society transgender people face, some of them resort to prostituting themselves or selling drugs to survive.
In kicking transgender people out of our homes and our offices, in subjecting them to individual and institutional violence, we are complicit in their trauma, if not directly responsible.
We need to fix our institutions, but we also need to fix ourselves. In the meantime, I hope we can find #JusticeforJane.

casefarr@indiana.edu
@casefarr