Journal of Law and Criminal Justice

Section D: a Tertium Genus of Incarceration? Case-study on the Transgender Inmates of Sollicciano Prison
Adriana Dias Vieira, Sofia Ciuffoletti

Abstract
Starting from the consideration that one of the traditional area of persistent mandatory gender segregation is the prison context, our paper focuses on a socio-legal analysis of the condition of transgender inmates and of the policy choices (or the lack of them) concerning their detention, using as a case-study Section D of the Italian Prison of Sollicciano, Florence. Two empirical considerations prompted our study. The first is related to the sources of law in the current global legal landscape that shows different solutions, from the undifferentiated imprisonment in male penitentiary, to the informal creation of special section, as in the case of the Sollicciano prison. All of these scenarios share the same conceptual roots: the normative binarism and the consequential legal impossibility of engaging in a political discussion concerning the condition of transgender inmates. Thus, the second consideration, which lies at the heart of our study and defines its theoretical and practical framework, consists in the necessity of interpreting the complex relations between law and gender, and prison and gender. Our study will unfold by laying out the most problematic issues concerning the incarceration of transgender people with the aim of initiating a public discourse that will replace the political and public aphasia on such a topic.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v2n2a13