Federal prison officials are reviewing transgender housing in the wake of rollbacks imposed during the Trump administration, The Associated Press reports.
The action came after a U.S. District Court judge recommended the Bureau of Prisons consider housing a transgender at a female prison.
The prisoner is Emily Claire Hari, formerly known as Michael Hari, who was sentenced to 53 years in federal prison for the pipe bombing of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn. No one was injured, AP reported.
“It will now be up to the Bureau of Prisons’ Transgender Executive Council — a group of psychology and correctional officials — to determine where to house Hari,” according to the AP.
There are 156,000 federal prisoners housed in 122 federal prisons. At least 1,200 of them identify as transgender, according to a Department of Justice official.
The Obama Administration’s policy for housing transgender prisoners called for the council to “recommend housing by gender identity when appropriate.” The Trump administration amended that language to require the committee to “use biological sex as the initial determination.”
The Transgender Executive Council was established in 2016 under the Obama administration, and it consists of about 10 people including two psychologists, a psychiatrist, and prison-designation experts.
The bureau is committed to providing all inmates with a safe and humane environment, “including providing gender-affirming housing where appropriate,” a Justice Department official told AP.
“According to court documents, Hari informed a Minnesota jail deputy in late December about her gender dysphoria, and requested to be moved to a women’s facility and provided with hormone replacement therapy,” the article stated.
There are many different things the department could consider when housing transgenders, including their disciplinary records and availability of beds.
Hari told her attorney she wanted to make a full transition, but she knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything she knew, according to her defense lawyer Shannon Elkins.
Elkins wrote that Hari was living a double life and was planning a trip to Thailand for a male-to-female
surgery, according to transcript documents; she also said Hari was purchasing female clothing while buying military fatigues for the militia.
