"Filed on Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., the challenges a December 2025 Justice Department memorandum directing prisons and federal auditors to disregard portions of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, regulations that specifically protect transgender people behind bars."
"The suit, Poe v. U.S. Department of Justice, was brought by the National Center for LGBTQ Rights on behalf of Paulina Poe, a transgender woman incarcerated in a men's prison. The plaintiffs accuse the Trump administration of attempting to erase federal recognition of transgender incarcerated people by informally suspending longstanding prison safety regulations without legally repealing them."
"According to the complaint, the Justice Department instructed prisons to ignore federal protections requiring individualized safety assessments for transgender people and ordered PREA auditors to stop evaluating whether prisons comply with those standards."
"At the center of the case is PREA, the bipartisan anti-prison-rape law Congress passed unanimously in 2003 after years of reports documenting widespread sexual violence in American correctional facilities. The law directed the Justice Department to create national standards aimed at preventing rape and abuse behind bars. The regulations implementing PREA took years to develop and were shaped by federal research showing transgender incarcerated people face disproportionately high rates of sexual assault."
A federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. challenges a December 2025 Justice Department memorandum directing prisons and federal auditors to disregard parts of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations that protect transgender incarcerated people. The case, Poe v. U.S. Department of Justice, is brought by the National Center for LGBTQ Rights on behalf of Paulina Poe, a transgender woman incarcerated in a men’s prison. Plaintiffs allege the administration attempted to erase federal recognition of transgender incarcerated people by informally suspending longstanding safety rules without legally repealing them. The complaint claims DOJ instructed prisons to ignore individualized safety assessments for transgender people and ordered PREA auditors to stop evaluating compliance with those standards. PREA was passed in 2003 to prevent prison rape and abuse and led to regulations finalized in 2012 that recognized transgender people as especially vulnerable based on federal research.
#transgender-rights #prison-rape-prevention #prea-regulations #justice-department #federal-litigation
Read at Advocate.com
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