ABSTRACT
The LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) population in American prisons and juvenile detention facilities increased dramatically during the Tough on Crime Movement of the 1980s and 1990s and has continued to increase in the 2000s. This chapter reviews some of the challenges that lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons in prison experience, including harassment by staff and other inmates, arbitrary discipline, physical and sexual assault (Beck et al, 2010) restriction in access to resources, and segregation into “gay cell blocks.” Transgender inmates are even more vulnerable, particularly transgender women, with little accommodation of medical care, hair and grooming supplies, privacy, and the use of their correct name and gender.
