Revised policy will determine where transgender inmates housed in Ontario
Decisions on where to house Ontario’s transgender inmates won’t be based on their physical sexual characteristics but rather how they self-identify, a revised provincial policy says.
The changes, which impact the admission, placement and classification of transgender inmates, were announced at a community centre in Toronto by Ontario’s Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi, who told reporters one of his key priorities is protecting the human rights of these inmates.
The changes say inmates must be placed in an institution “appropriate to their self-identified gender or housing preference’’ unless there are overriding health or safety risks.
The revised policy is “the most comprehensive policy in Canada for respecting the human rights-related needs of trans individuals in correctional institutions,’’ Naqvi said in his announcement.
“We imposed our stereotypes as to the person’s identity or gender. We’ve (now) changed that completely’’ Naqvi told reporters later.
The change comes after a series of high-profile cases involving transgender accused, including the launching of a human rights complaint by Avery Edison, of the British citizen, who was born a man but identifies as a woman, and who was detained at Pearson airport last year for overstaying a student visa during a previous visit to Canada.
She was detained by border services and held for 20 hours in a correctional facility for men.
The Ontario Correctional Service changes also affect frisk searches. Now the option for transgender inmates to be searched by a male or female guard, or both, extends to frisks. Before, the option for these inmates pertained only to strip searches.
Regarding integration with other prisoners, “wherever possible and subject to inmate preferences” inmates will be integrated into the general population, and not isolated. Previous policy resulted in inmates often being kept in segregation.
Prisoners will also be referred to by their preferred names and gender pronouns both in verbal communication with them and written documents. Before the change, records were kept in the inmate’s legal name, with no formal consideration of their gender identity or how to address them verbally.
Inmates will be also able to retain personal items, including prosthetics necessary to express their gender, whereas before the policy changes there was no consistency in how correctional staff searched and returned these items.
Training of correctional workers and ministry staff across the province on the new policy is set to being in March, and an online course is being developed.
Guards in the province have said the rules governing how they should manage transgender inmates are confusing.
The new policy is consistent Ontario Human Rights Commission policy released in April.
Ontario Human Rights Commission chief Barbara Hall told Monday’s news conference that Human Rights Watch has found that transgender inmates face a higher degree of harassment and violence from other inmates, and at times corrections staff.
