Gay people in prison

For Pride Month, we gathered a rare of the most striking facts about the criminalization of queer youth and adults.

by Wanda Bertram, June 4, 2024

As we’ve reported in the past, LGBTQ+ people are overrepresented throughout the criminal legal system, from their high rates of juvenile justice involvement to the elongated sentences they often receive as adults. While little government data exists about the over-incarceration of this group, analyze is slowly emerging that shows how a multitude of forces push LGBTQ people into jails and prisons at highly disproportionate rates. This year, for Pride Month, we gather a scant of the most striking facts about the criminalization of queer youth and adults.

• Lesbian, homosexual, and bisexual people are more than twice as likely to be arrested as straight people — and sapphic and bisexual women, specifically, are more than four times as likely to be arrested as straight women. Scant research exists about the causes of these disparities, but it’s likely that drug law enforcement, laws against sex work, and the criminalization of homelessness are largely to blame.

• 40%
  
  

  Former prisoners share their experiences of sex in prison

  The Commission on Sex in Prison’s final inform, published today (Tuesday 17 March), features accounts from former prisoners speaking for the first day about their experiences of sex behind bars.

  Sex in prison: Experiences of former prisoners is the fifth and final briefing folio published by the Commission, which was established by the Howard League for Penal Reform and includes eminent academics, former prison governors and health experts.

  Recommendations from the Commission’s two-year inquiry will be presented today (Tuesday 17 March) at a conference in London.

  The Commission sought permission to interview current prisoners about their experiences of sex in prison, but this approach was blocked by the Ministry of Justice.

  However, Dr Alisa Stevens, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton, was able to interview 26 former prisoners during the summer of 2014 – 24 men and two women.

  Her inform concludes that a national survey of both the serving prison population and former prisoners, fully supported by but independent of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), is “urgently required” to
  
  

  Visualizing the unequal treatment of LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system

  LGBTQ people are overrepresented at every stage of our criminal justice system, from juvenile justice to parole.

  by Alexi Jones, March 2, 2021

  The data is clear: lesbian, male lover, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ ¹) people are overrepresented at every stage of criminal justice system, starting with juvenile justice system involvement. They are arrested, incarcerated, and subjected to collective supervision at significantly higher rates than straight and cisgender people. This is especially true for trans people and queer women. And while incarcerated, LGBTQ individuals are subject to particularly inhumane conditions and treatment.

  For this briefing, we’ve compiled the existing research on LGBTQ involvement and experiences with the criminal justice system, and – where the data did not yet endure – analyzed a recent national statistics set to saturate in the gaps. (Namely, we provide the only national estimates for woman loving woman, gay, or bi arrest rates and community supervision rates that we recognize of.) We show the findings for each stage of the criminal justice system with availa

  ‘Being Gay in Prison Is Ten Times Harder’: Inmates Tell of Abuse, Employ of Solitary

  Gabriel Guzman has dark brown eyes, but it’s difficult to discern when you talk to him. That’s because Guzman, a former Illinois prison inmate, has a difficult time maintaining eye contact, one of the many lasting effects of having spent long periods in solitary confinement. Guzman was released last March after ten years in prison, about three and a half of those in solitary.

  Guzman, 31, was sent to prison for having sexual relations with a minor beginning when he was 17 years old. A Latino same-sex attracted man, Guzman says in an interview that he was often sent to solitary confinement for defending himself and other Gay inmates against other inmates and prison staff.

  “In prison, it’s hard,” Guzman says in a soft voice. “But creature gay in prison makes it ten times harder.”

  Eight percent of incarcerated adults identify as something other than heterosexual, according to a recent report on LGBT prisoners. This is nearly twice the percentage of adults in the general U.S. population who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

  For many of these people, abuse because of