Correctional Service of Canada’s policy surrounding transgender inmates is relatively well applied, but isn’t without its challenges according to correctional investigator Howard Sapers.
Sapers tells us the policy, which is referred to as the commissioner’s directive on gender dysphoria, is evolutionary and there’s growing community sensitivity to the issue. He says in Corrections we’ve actually come a long way.
“People who are trans, people who are bisexual, people who are homosexual have often been victimized inside correctional institutions, they’ve been sexually exploited, they have additional vulnerabilities. I think that we’ve come a long way in recognizing those vulnerabilities and in working towards meeting them,” says Sapers.
He says the directive can be improved but it has improved during his time in Corrections. Sapers was first appointed to his position in 2004. He would like to see more attention paid to those who are moving towards gender reassignment surgery.
“The area of complaint we typically receive from [the transgender] population of offenders is either their efforts to obtain gender reassignment surgery are being undermined or their progress is being unfairly and improperly restricted or impeded as a result of their incarceration,” says Sapers.
The CSC’s gender dysphoria policy states the placement of pre-operative offenders is based on their biological sex.
Last month we spoke to a Mount Allison University professor who called the handling of trans inmates “a real tangled mess” and “pretty dire.” You can read that story here.
