The Forgotten Frontier - Healthcare for Transgender Detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention
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The Forgotten Frontier? Healthcare for
Transgender Detainees in Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Detention
DANA O'DAY-SENIOR*
INTRODUCTION
In 2007, a postoperative transgender individual contacted a prisoner
advocacy organization.' The individual was in Immigratio'n and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) detention awaiting resolution of the individual's
asylum case. ICE detention officials had confiscated the individual's
prescription hormones, a standard part of the individual's healthcare
regimen since long before the individual's detention, which was
necessary for maintaining the individual's health and transition between
genders. Repeated requests to ICE's medical staff for more hormones
had been refused, and the individual wanted to know what to do to get
the hormone therapy restored.
This posed a very perplexing problem even for organizations and
firms routinely involved in transgender rights, prisoner rights, and
asylum law. Frustratingly for the individual client, no one had a quick or
easy answer. Initial research showed that, unlike the Federal Bureau of
Prisons (BOP)2 or the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR)3 which have established regulations concerning
* J.D. Candidate, University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 2009. The Author
would like to thank Alexander L. Lee, Melanie Rowen, and Kristina Wertz for their inspiration,
expertise, and encouragement in writing portions of this Note. The Author would also like to thank
Professor Hadar Aviram and the notes editorial staff at the Hastings Law Journal for their suggestions
and feedback on how to improve this Note.
I. The introductory story is based on a real case in which the Author had involvement; however,
details have been changed to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the individual involved.
2. FED. BUREAU OF PRISONS, U.S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, PUBL'N No. P603o.01, PROGRAM STATEMENT
ON PATIENT CARE 43 (2005), available at http://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/6o31_- ooI.pdf.
3. CAL. DEP'T CORR. & REHAB., OPERATIONS MANUAL § 91020.26 (1995) [hereinafter CDCR,
OPERATIONS MANUAL]; Div. OF CORR. HEALTH CARE SERVS., CAL. DEP'T CORR. & REHAB., TRANSGENDER
MEDICAL CARE POLICY 4.2.I-.3 (2o07) [hereinafter CDCR, TRANSGENDER MEDICAL CARE POLICY]; see
also Union-Tribune News Serv., Ex-Prisoner Awarded $8oooo, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIB., Sept. I, 2000,
at A-3 (leading to, along with the surrounding litigation, the CDCR to expand their offered
transgender healthcare beyond the strict limitations stated in the CDCR Operations Manual); Corr.
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The Forgotten Frontier - Healthcare for Transgender Detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention
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