By Allison Smith , 2014
Prisons regulate identities and what rights get recognized and protected in a prison setting. Gender is a core element of identity that is policed by the prison system and by the law that governs prisons. Focusing on developments within Canadian transgender jurisprudence, this paper explores how prisoners’ bodies that do not conform to a strict gender binary are defined as inhuman. By critically assessing the prison system and prison policy, this essay demonstrates how Canadian law has often failed to address the needs and lived experiences of transgender women in their interactions with the penal system.
