DOJ Sues Utah DOC, Alleging Discrimination Against Transgender Prisoner
On April 2, 2024, the U.S. Dept. of Justice sued the Utah Department of Corrections (DOC) for allegedly violating the rights of a transgender prisoner under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 126 §12101 et seq. The filing came just weeks after the Disability Rights Section of DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights issued a letter to DOC Executive Director Brian Redd on March 12, 2024, conveying the findings of its investigation into ADA violations alleged by the unidentified prisoner, who claimed DOC subjected her to discrimination and denied her equal access to healthcare due to her gender dysphoria disability.
A serious medical condition, gender dysphoria can result in “serious adverse mental health outcomes” if left untreated—outcomes that include self-mutilation and attempted suicide. Due to the lack of adequate medical care, the prisoner had attempted self-surgery to remove her testicles in May 2023. DOJ alleged that she had repeatedly requested treatment for her medical condition but received no gender dysphoria care for over 15 months, contrary to DOC’s own policy. When she was finally provided hormone therapy, prison officials “failed to take basic, necessary steps to ensure that the treatment was provided safely and effectively,” DOJ found.
Unlike other medical requests, transgender treatment requests must go through DOC’s gender dysphoria committee, resulting in lengthy delays. Worse, DOJ alleged, the committee “included members who expressed bias against individuals who are transgender and reluctance to prescribe medically appropriate treatment for gender dysphoria.” Non-transgender prisoners, of course, did not face such hurdles and delays when seeking medical care.
DOJ further found that prison officials had ignored the prisoner’s repeated grievances and ADA requests for reasonable accommodations for her gender dysphoria, including permission to wear female prison clothing, purchase gender-affirming garments and makeup from the commissary, be assigned to female housing units, and not be subjected to cross-gender pat searches. With respect to housing, DOC based its decisions solely on a prisoner’s sex at commitment, according to a visual inspection of the genitals, and there was no provision to place transgender women in female housing units.
Based on these facts, DOJ’s letter stated, it had determined that DOC discriminated against the prisoner due to her disability by failing to provide equal access to health care and refusing to reasonably modify its policies and procedures. Title II of the ADA “prohibits a public entity from imposing unnecessary eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out individuals with particular disabilities from fully and equally enjoying” services provided—including healthcare, DOJ stated. See: U.S. DOJ Letter of Findings and Conclusions to the Utah DOC (Mar. 12, 2024).
To correct these violations, DOJ then filed its suit in federal court for the District of Utah to force DOC to revise its policies and practices to ensure that prisoners with gender dysphoria are afforded equal opportunity to participate in services, programs and activities available to other prisoners. The suit further seeks to mandate training for DOC staff on ADA requirements, and for the agency to designate employees to ensure ADA compliance. DOJ is also seeking compensatory damages for the complainant. See: United States v. Utah, USDC (D. Utah), Case No. 2:24-cv-00241.
Redd, who said he was “blindsided” by DOJ’s letter, has not commented on the suit that followed. But Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said that “[a]ll people with disabilities, including those who are incarcerated, are protected by the ADA and are entitled to reasonable modifications and equal access to medical care.” That is a “basic right,” she added, one which “extends to those with gender dysphoria.”
Additional source: Axios