A prison guard in the Seysses remand center. – FRED SCHEIBER / 20 MINUTES
- A transgender detainee has just been transferred to the women’s ward by court order.
- The searches of this detainee, still in transition, pose a problem for the wardens of the women’s ward.
- A union of supervisors sent a letter to the public prosecutor requesting his transfer to the transgender district of Fleury Mérogis.
Rudoyée in the men’s sector of the Seysses remand center, a transgender detainee has just obtained a legal transfer to the women’s ward. On April 9, a decision of the Toulouse judicial court confirmed the change of sex in the civil status of the detainee and thus paved the way for her change of neighborhood.
Until now, she was notably forced to wear men’s clothes by prison staff, according to her support committees. In detention since June 2020, she was subjected to “transphobic remarks and acts from many monitors”, indicates the Toulouse association Grisélidis, which advocates for sex workers.
Before entering the women’s ward, the detainee was placed in solitary confinement. “It will not necessarily be easier for her in the women’s district,” worries Laura Garnier, secretary of the LGBT Arc-en-Ciel Toulouse association. “Recognizing our gender identity in prison is long and tedious,” she continues. “Already there is a lot of violence in prison, imagine what a trans woman can endure. “
Transgender neighborhood in Fleury
The judicial decision poses “a problem at the level of searches”, because this transgender, in full transition, still has “the attributes of a man” indicates the head of the Prison Syndicate of Supervisors (SPS) at the Seysses remand center. “We ask supervisors to search a detainee who has the attributes of a man” he explains, affirming that “the law says that it must be done between people of the same sex”.
The union sent a letter to the Toulouse public prosecutor on Tuesday, asking him for a legal outcome thanks to his transfer to the transgender district of the Fleury-Mérogis remand center.
The question of the conditions of detention of transgender people is often a theme of demands of LGBT associations. In October 2020, the National Action Plan for Equality against Hate and Anti-LGBT Discrimination, spread over three years, provided for “better protection of LGBT + people in prison”.