New rules to prevent transgender prisoner abuse

(28 Jul 2015) New rules brought in across Rio de Janeiro's 52 prisons ban discrimination against transvestite and transgender prisoners and protect their gender identities while behind bars. Transvestite and transgender inmates are now allowed to be known by their common - as opposed to legal - names, guaranteed access to conjugal visits, and transgender women are permitted to choose to serve out their sentences in a women's facility. The Rio rules also guarantee access to hormone therapy and allow transgender women to wear lingerie, makeup and keep their hair long. Under the new rules, transgender inmates are also spared humiliating strip searches in front of other prisoners and no longer need to remove their shirts for daily sunbathing sessions, considered as a security measure in some penitentiaries. Claudio Nascimento, who heads the Rio Without Homophobia advocacy group, lobbied for nearly a decade in favour of the new regulations. Coronel Erir Ribeiro Costa, the head of Rio's state penitentiary agency, says his organisation is happy to support transgender prisoners and that the simple changes made had no effect on prison administration but a large impact on the inmates. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...