Incarceration

This entry describes the manner in which LGBTQ people are incarcerated in penal facilities in the United States. Penal facilities, which include detention centers, jails, and prisons, are places where every person incarcerated is subjected to the curtailment of his or her liberty, privacy, and agency. By extension, such curtailment of these basic rights[Page 580] is associated with feelings of loss of control; loss of familial and personal relationships; and, in some cases, profound sensory deprivation. The manner in which LGBTQ people suffer in penal facilities is both similar to and different from the manner in which heterosexual, cisgender (those who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth) people experience these institutions. This entry identifies the particular ways in which LGBTQ people experience ...