Transgender Inmate Count and Housing Placement
Submitted | May 2, 2019 |
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Communications
From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the South Dakota Open 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 10 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Sosin Oeser
From: Department of Corrections
May 15, 2019
Kathryn Sosin Oeser
Muckrock
Kathryn,
We have received your request for information on transgender inmates in our state prison system.
We are working on finalizing a response and expect to have information to you within the next week or so.
Sincerely,
Mike Leidholt
Cabinet Secretary
South Dakota Department of Corrections
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following South Dakota Open Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 2, 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
From: requests@muckrock.com <requests@muckrock.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 2, 2019 10:27 AM
To: Winder, Michael <Michael.Winder@state.sd.us>
Subject: [EXT] South Dakota Open Records Law Request: Transgender Inmate Count and Housing Placement
Department of Corrections
SDORL Office
3200 South Dakota 34
Pierre, SD 57501
May 2, 2019
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the South Dakota Open 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 10 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Sosin Oeser
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From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
Thank you so much for this response. Can you confirm/ clarify if all of the 33 inmates housed in male facilities are transgender women (women who transition from male to female) and if the 2 housed in women's facilities are transgender men (men who transition from female to male)?
I very much appreciate your timely reply!
From: Department of Corrections
There appears to be a difference in regard to definitions. To clarify, our previous response was based on the number of inmates who self-identify as transgender for purposes of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) recording.
The 33 biological males who self-identify as female gender are housed in male facilities. The two biological females who self-identify as male gender are housed in female facilities. None of the inmates who self-identify as transgender are housed in a facility opposite of their biological sex.
-
~WRD000
From: Kathryn Sosin Oeser
Thank you so much
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