Agnes Goes to Prison

Abstract

Historically developed along gender lines and arguably the most sex segregated of institutions, U.S. prisons are organized around the assumption of a gender binary. In this context, the existence and increasing visibility of transgender prisoners raise questions about how gender is accomplished by transgender prisoners in prisons for men. This analysis draws on official data and original interview data from 315 transgender inmates in 27 California prisons for men to focus analytic attention on the pursuit of “the real deal”—a concept we develop to reference a dynamic related to how gender is accomplished by transgender inmates. Specifically, among transgender inmates in prisons for men, there is competition for the attention and affection of “real men” in prisons: the demonstrable and well-articulated desire to secure standing as “the best girl” in sex segregated institutional environments. Our empirical examination sheds light on the gender order that underpins prison life, the lived experience of gender and sexuality for transgender inmates in prisons for men, and how that experience reveals new aspects of the workings of gender accountability.

Narratives of Transgender People Detained in Prison: The Role Played by the Utterances “Not” (as a Feeling of Hetero- and Auto-rejection) and “Exist” (as a Feeling of Hetero- and Auto-acceptance) for the Construction of a Discursive Self. A Suggestion of Goals and Strategies for Psychological Counseling

“…Something similar has also been observed in many US prisons (Sultan, 2003; Brown and McDuffie, 2009; Alexander and Meshelemiah, 2010; von Dresner et al, 2013; Jenness and Fenstermaker, 2014), confirming that transgender experiences (as an identity claiming) are still considered as superimposable to homosexuality (as a sexual orientation or preference; Hochdorn et al, 2016). Brazilian inmates in Italian jails, indeed, had to reach Europe, and, must, therefore, face a migration experience.…”

“…Such a situation as has been underlined by several scholars (Sexton et al, 2010; Jenness and Fenstermaker, 2014), is due to common imprisonment with heterosexual cis-gender men, like those transgender inmates who has been interviewed in the Brazilian jail for the current study.…”

“…The situation observed in Brazil, actually, reflects the general condition of detainment of transgender people in other countries, especially the USA (Samons, 2001; Jenness, 2010; Jenness and Fenstermaker, 2014), where self-harm (Brown, 2010), loss of self (Disspain et al, 2015), and extreme physical and psychological violence, received either from heteronormative and cis-gender male prisoners (Gruberg, 2014) or prison workers (Kirkup, 2009), are the daily rule. Such a situation as has been underlined by several scholars (Sexton et al, 2010; Jenness and Fenstermaker, 2014), is due to common imprisonment with heterosexual cis-gender men, like those transgender inmates who has been interviewed in the Brazilian jail for the current study.…”

“…These publications, furthermore, mainly belong either to healthcare or social sciences, adopting mostly clinical (Samons, 2001; Brown and McDuffie, 2009; Alexander and Meshelemiah, 2010), behavioral (Petersen et al, 1996; Stephens et al, 2003), or systemic (Chianura et al, 2010) approaches for the first, and post-structuralist ones (Jenness, 2010, 2014; Jenness and Fenstermaker, 2014) for the second scientific area. Other studies, moreover, have principally been focused on endocrinological (Valenta et al, 1992) and epidemiological—basically HIV (Stephens et al, 1999, 2003; Phillips and Patsdaughter, 2010; Brewer et al, 2014)—factors associated with conditions of transgender people's detainment.…”

“…In a paper published by Jenness and Fenstermaker (2014) about the detainment conditions of women-affirmed transgender people in the Californian penitentiary system, the authors commented on an extract out of the interviews they gathered, that “whether transgender women actually fight or not—and the data suggest they do—is not the point; the point is the fact that they render fighting sensible through a gendered lens” (p. 22). Such a statement perfectly reflects a silent and, at the same time, difficult challenge to be faced either by transgender people themselves, detained in prison, as by the staff that interacts daily in these institutions (Hochdorn et al, 2015).…”