Honoring Layleen: Reflections On The NYC TGNCNBI Task Force Report

On January 25th, 2023, the New York City Council held a hearing on issues faced by gender expansive people incarcerated in NYC’s jails. The hearing took place five months after the NYC Task Force on Issues Faced by TGNCNBI People in Custody published its first report, which provides an in-depth review of the many ways the NYC Department of Correction (DOC) systematically abuses gender expansive people in its custody, offers many accounts of the horrific mistreatment of gender expansive people who are formerly and currently incarcerated, and makes extensive policy recommendations aimed to improve the safety and well-being of TGNCNBI incarcerated people. Some of those recommendations include:

(1) improving intake practices to ensure trans people are not sent to the wrong facility for intake, where they can remain for weeks until transferred,

(2) housing people in alignment with their gender identity or where they feel safest, and

(3) improving access to affirming healthcare.

DOC Commissioner Louis Molina testified on behalf of the Department. Commissioner Molina’s testimony was an insult to the many advocates and directly impacted people who contributed to the report as well as those who have risked their lives to reveal the truth of how miserably the City is failing transgender New Yorkers. His remarks made it clear that he had not only failed to read the report but he also failed to familiarize himself with the City Council bills that were the subject of the hearing. Molina denied that trans people were facing abuse, he refused any meaningful collaboration with the City’s own commissioned Task Force, and revealed a total disregard for TGNCNBI people in DOC custody.

Under questioning by the chairs of the Committee on Criminal Justice and Committee on Women and Gender Equity, Council Member Rivera and Council Member Cabán, respectively, Commissioner Molina revealed that the DOC deliberately shelved a directive that would have improved its ability to place gender expansive people in the safest facilities, while letting an LGBTQ Affairs Unit slowly disintegrate under the weight of life-threatening indifference.

Following the Department’s DOC’s testimony, a panel of Task Force Members, including co-authors of the report, Shéár Avory, Grace Detreverah, Mik Kinkead, Deborah Lolai, and Dr. Rachel Golden testified, calling out Commissioner Molina’s lies on the record, and making their position very clear: Department of Corrections continues to refuse to improve conditions for TGNCNBI people in its custody, and that this is an urgent issue of life-or-death illustrated by the death of Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman who died in DOC custody on Rikers Island in 2019.

The Task Force asked the City Council to

(1) pass Res. No. 458,

(2)make their suggested amendments to Int. No. 887, Int. No. 831, Int. No. 728, and then pass those amended bills, and

(3) reconsider whether Int. No 355 and Res. No. 117 would address the issues gender expansive people who are incarcerated are facing.

Additionally, there was a very clear request that Local Law 2019/145- which created the Task Force-be amended to provide support for Task Force members, and to explicitly require DOC to engage with the Task Force in good faith, such as by sharing data about gender expansive people in their custody, which they have been withholding intentionally since the first report was published.

Following the testimony of Task Force members, several panels of formerly incarcerated people, people offering testimony on behalf of currently incarcerated people, and advocates, shared stories of the abuse and discrimination that gender expansive people in DOC custody continue to face, and called on the City Council to act before more people die.

Deb Lolai, BX Defender Services