
Transgender women entering Rikers Island will be housed in separate facilities, starting Tuesday. A new 30-bed Transgender Housing Unit is meant to reduce violence against one of the most at-risk segments of the prison population.
Rikers has gained a reputation for violence committed by corrections officers and fellow inmates. Kim Forte of Legal Aid said that transgender women are especially at risk.
"Just the inherent nature of being a trans-identified woman and being placed in a male facility, it puts you in an extreme position of vulnerability," said Forte.
Erik Berliner, the Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Corrections, said the city worked with LGBTQ groups and others to develop the new unit, and that it's part of a broader strategy of "finding the areas in which vulnerable populations or populations likely to have incident involvement can be better managed."
So far, 116 staffers have been given sensitivity training, said Berliner.