CHICAGO – A federal appeals court will consider a request this week from the Illinois Department of Corrections to be released from specific, detailed court orders designed to ensure basic, humane and constitutionally-required treatment for more than 250 transgender and gender-diverse people detained at Illinois correctional facilities. The court is being asked to vacate previous court orders issued by a downstate federal judge, despite the reality that many people who are transgender continue to experience dangerous conditions and a lack of meaningful health care years after the court ordered changes.
The argument comes as the latest development in Monroe v. Bowman, a class action lawsuit filed in January 2018 on behalf of five women – Janiah Monroe, Marilyn Melendez, Lydia Helen Vision, Sora Kuykendall and Sasha Reed – as well as all people in the custody of IDOC who have requested evaluation or treatment for gender dysphoria.
“In the years since this case was initially filed, halting, reluctant progress has been made for some class members,” said Michelle García, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Illinois who represents the class, along with Kirkland & Ellis LLP, King & Spalding LLP, Kennedy Hunt, P.C., and the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project in the lawsuit. “But as the lower court has made clear, the rate of progress has been ‘glacial.’ None of the named plaintiffs have been able to access the full range of health care they need and many of our clients are living in conditions that are humiliating and unsafe.”
The argument set for Thursday, September 19 at 9:30 a.m. arises after a federal district court judge refused to vacate her previous court orders and mandated the IDOC take specific steps to improve conditions for transgender and gender-diverse people under their care. These steps included addressing concerns about transgender people in IDOC care not being housed in facilities consistent with their gender identity. More than twenty class members are seeking to transfer from the Menard Correctional Center where there have been repeated reports of sexual assault by IDOC personnel. Other class members continue to be stripped search by officers of another gender, creating embarrassment and humiliation. Other plaintiffs are housed in facilities where they are not allowed to shower in private – with no private showers or curtains – in full view of personnel of the opposite gender.
Finally, IDOC still has not assured that class members are able to access grooming and personal items consistent with their gender in all IDOC facilities.
“The independent federal court monitors in this case have consistently and repeatedly noted that our clients are suffering as a result of IDOC’s failure to take modest steps to address these concerns,” added García of the ACLU. “Instead, IDOC is asking the court to release them from court oversight in this matter. We will strongly urge the appellate court to reject this argument.”