The New Jersey Department of Corrections recently agreed to adopt a system-wide policy to help protect transgender, intersex, and non-binary people in prisons. This was the result of an agreement settling a civil rights suit brought by a woman who was forced to live in men’s prisons for a year and a half, represented by the ACLU of New Jersey and attorney Robyn Gigl of Gluck Walrath LLP. The new policy includes housing in line with gender identity, appropriate use of pronouns, access to gender-affirming property, and more.
On August 26, 2021, the ACLU of New Jersey and Garden State Equality sent a letter to county jail wardens in New Jersey urging them to adopt a similar policy and outlining the obligations under the Law Against Discrimination to respect the rights of transgender people in their custody.
