A Proposal for the Cost-Effectiveness of Solitary Confinement in the Housing of Transgender Inmates

Abstract

Carceral institutional structure dictates female and male inmates be housed separately. This rigid division is not designed to handle those who fall to the outside. I will be focusing my attention on the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) which encompasses the "overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems as they pertain to the housing and living conditions of transgender individuals held in institutional corrections facilities" (Coleman et al., 2012). My goal is to explore the costs and benefits of housing transgender individuals in solitary confinement as a long-term housing solution whileincarcerated. I will then evaluate proposed solutions comparing between conservative approaches as well as ones following the transgender populations' wishes and gender identities interact with the rigid male-female configuration that the Prison Industrial Complex currently holds.