ACLU of Illinois Reacts to IDOC’s Filing in Monroe v. Jeffreys

The below statement can be attributed to John Knight, LGBTQ & HIV Advocacy Director, ACLU of Illinois:
 
“There are some promising aspects to the Illinois Department of Corrections (“IDOC”) report to the Court regarding how it will comply with the Court’s December 19, 2019 order. One positive example is IDOC’s commitment to stop allowing the “Transgender Care Review Committee” to make decisions regarding the medical care provided transgender prisoners. That group did not have a single member who was qualified to make medical care decisions regarding the care for prisoners with gender dysphoria and served primarily as a roadblock to transgender individuals’ ability to get the care they need. 
 
Likewise, the State said it will take steps to insure that medical personnel at IDOC are properly trained and that transgender individuals are allowed to socially transition, are promptly provided hormone treatment consistent with medical standards, and are no longer automatically placed in prisons based on genital status and subjected to cross-gender searches. These promises need to be turned into action. 
 
Much work remains to be done – largely because IDOC has so far taken very little concrete action. The Department says it is working on fixing these issues, but offers no actual timeline for when the changes will take place. Most concerning is IDOC’s statement that it intends to ask the Court to reconsider its order at some unspecified date, rather than simply doing the work to fix the problems the Court has identified. Challenging the court’s order is simply going to delay meaningful reform. 
 
Our clients continue to suffer; some of them contemplate suicide on a daily basis. IDOC has subjected transgender individuals to abysmal treatment for years. It’s way past time for IDOC to turn its abstract plans into concrete changes. The lives of our clients depend on it.”