Transgender Inmate Count and Housing Placement (Department of Corrections)
It is a clone of this request.
| Multi Request | Transgender Inmate Count and Housing Placement |
| Submitted | April 5, 2019 |
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Communications
From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the South Carolina Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
A complete and accurate count of all transgender inmates currently in custody in the Department of Corrections as mandated to be recorded by the Prison Rape Elimination Act including:
-the number of transgender women in custody
-the number of transgender women who are housed in men's facilities
-the number of transgender men in custody
-the number of transgender men who are housed in women's facilities
-the number of transgender people who are taking hormones
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Sosin Oeser
From: Department of Corrections
Ms. Oeser,
SCDC received your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on April 8, 2019. SCDC does not have any publicly available documents responsive to your above referenced FOIA request. Please note that medical records and all "other records which by law are required to be closed to the public" are not available through FOIA as stated in 30-4-20(c). Additionally, documents that contain information regarding SCDC security plans and devices are not available through FOIA as is stated in 30-4-20(c). Pursuant to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act's requirement that we make public records available for "inspection or copying," codified in SC Code Ann. 30-4-30(a), the SCDC non-restricted policies and procedures you have requested (SCDC Policy GA-06.09) is available for your inspection on our website. To access the policy, please visit our website at http://www.doc.sc.gov/ Choose General Counsel under Quick Links on the right hand menu. Once on General Counsel's page, choose SCDC Policies under Quick Links on the right hand menu. Then you will be able to choose the policies you are interested in from the list of SCDC Policies. This serves as the final opinion of SCDC on the public availability of the records you have requested as required by 30-4-30(c).
Sincerely,
SCDC FOIA Office
Post Office Box 21787
Columbia, SC 29221-1787
FOIA@doc.sc.gov<mailto:FOIA@doc.sc.gov>
From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
Hello,
The records requested are not at all medical records. Nearly every state in the nation has provided these records to us for an NBC national news story, and South Carolina will be among the only to deny this request. The numbers we are asking for do not provide any identifying information on inmates in custody. I kindly ask you provide these numbers via this request so that I do not have to seek them via legal counsel.
Thank you,
Kate Sosin
NBC News
From: Department of Corrections
Hi Kate,
I responded to this request last week. Here is the email:
Hi Kate,
You requested information about the number of transgender people currently incarcerated at SCDC. Our policy governing the care and custody of transgender inmates is found here:
http://www.doc.sc.gov/policy/GA-06-09.htm.pdf
Our Multidisciplinary Management and Treatment Team (MMTT) referenced in this policy is currently monitoring 18 inmates. However, there have been a number of inmates who have requested not to be monitored by the MMTT. SCDC respects those inmates' right to privacy and has honored their wishes. Thus, the 18 being monitored does not reflect all of the transgender inmates in the system. We do not track the number of inmates who have declined to participate in the MMTT process so I cannot provide that number.
You also requested information regarding the housing of transgender inmates. Housing decisions for transgender inmates are made on a case by case basis and many factors are taken into consideration. For more information, please see Section 3 of the above referenced policy.
Thanks,
Chrysti
From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
Hi Chrysti,
This request remains unresolved as it does not contain a breakdown of where transgender inmates are placed in terms of gender. For example, how many transgender women are housed with men? How many transgender men are housed with women? I followed up on that to ask, and then asked again and am still waiting on that. If you can include that, I will close out this request, but until then, it is really the bulk of my request.
Thank you,
Kate
From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
Hello Chrysti,
I am again following up.
Thank you
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following South Carolina Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on April 5, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Department of Corrections
Hi Ms. Oeser,
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