USA TODAY – LGBTQ people are three times likelier to be incarcerated and more than twice as likely to be arrested compared to straight people.
Prison rates are even higher among LGBTQ people of color.
“Being poor, a person of color and LGBTQ puts you at the intersection of being arrested and incarcerated,” one LGBTQ advocate said. [Editors note: incarceration rates are much higher among people who commit crimes … which is not news.]
ICYMI: Reuters “Fact Checks” Pregnant Ken Gag
By the time she’d approached the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois for help last year, the client, a Black transgender woman, had more than 100 arrests on her record.
Growing up in Chicago in the 1980s, she’d been harassed at home and at school and was eventually kicked out of the house at age 14.
The adults she turned to for shelter and support were engaged in the drug and sex trades, and by her 20s, she was drug dependent and working the streets … READ MORE [subscription may be required]
LGBTQ Individuals Overrepresented in Prisons: Study
By TCR Staff | 8 hours ago
According to the findings of a comprehensive national report by the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, LGBTQ people are three times more likely to be incarcerated than the general population and more than twice as likely to be arrested compared to straight people, with rates seemingly even higher among LGBTQ people of color and those with disabilities, reports USA Today.
Among the document’s other key points: LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender people, experience higher levels of harassment and abuse in prisons, with victimization often perpetrated by staff.
Incarcerated LGBTQ youth and adults report high rates of solitary confinement or denial of inclusive health care such as gender-affirming treatment.
Lesbian and bisexual women are four times likelier than straight women to be arrested, with emerging evidence indicating transgender women of color experience the highest arrest rates, the study found. READ MORE.
