"Incarcerated LGBTQ+ Adults and Youth"

The title of this post is the title of this new report from The Sentencing Project. Here is how the document starts:

This fact sheet examines the criminalization and over-incarceration of LGBTQ+ adults and youth.  The LGBTQ+ population is comprised of people with non-heterosexual identities — those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and others — and people with non-cisgender identities — those who are trans and gender non-conforming.  LGBTQ+ adults are incarcerated at three times the rate of the total adult population.  LGBTQ+ youth’s representation among the incarcerated population is double their share of the general population.

LGBTQ+ people experience high rates of homelessness, poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and violence — factors which drive their overrepresentation in the criminal legal system. In both adult and youth facilities, imprisoned LGBTQ+ people face physical, sexual, and verbal harassment and abuse, as well as a lack of gender-affirming housing, clothing, personal hygiene products, medical care, and mental health treatment.  To help alleviate these harms, states and the federal government should repeal laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ people, limit the use of solitary confinement, mandate access to gender-affirming health care in correctional facilities, and invest in drug and mental health treatment and reentry programs for LGBTQ+ youth and adults