Transgender Woman Wins Landmark Settlement Against a County Jail in New York

Jails and prisons can be harrowing places for transgender people. Transgender inmates are frequently housed based on their sex assigned at birth as opposed to their gender identity, which makes them a target of potential physical and sexual violence. Furthermore, transgender people have to rely on potentially hostile prison staff members to provide them with their medical treatments like hormones. It’s something that almost every trans person dreads but, thanks to one courageous trans woman, one county in New York will be adjusting its policies.

Makyyla Holland is a 25-year-old, Black, transgender woman who spent six weeks in Broome County Jail in New York state in 2021 for criminal contempt and assault. According to ABC News, Holland says that she was placed in a men’s housing unit, was routinely misgendered, was denied access to her hormones, and that staff beat her on a regular basis.

“I was humiliated by Broome County jail staff because I am a transgender woman,” Holland says in a statement that she issued through the New York Civil Liberties Union when the suit was originally filed. “I was harassed, mocked, misgendered, and worse: Jail staff strip-searched me, beat me up, placed me in the male section of the jail, and withheld my hormones for a period of time, forcing me to go into agonizing withdrawal.”

Holland accepted a settlement in her case and, according to another NYCLU press release from immediately after the case ended, Holland received compensation of $160,000, and the jail adopted new policies towards transgender inmates including housing people according to their gender identity rather than their assigned sex at birth, conducting searches with security guards of the gender of the inmate’s choosing, and ensuring access to gender-affirming care.

“While this settlement stems from an incident and subsequent lawsuit that occurred before I was elected Sheriff, I’m pleased we were able to amicably reach a resolution that establishes clear LGBTI Guidelines, which were previously nonexistent, to address the rights of LGBTI inmates while maintaining the safety and security of individuals both housed and working at the Broome County Correctional Facility,” Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar explains in a statement to USA Today.

Still, while this is a huge step forward, Gabriella Larios, staff attorney for the NYCLU, explains that the path forward on this issue is through legislation, not lawsuits. “It would be difficult if not impossible to bring about the kind of wide-scale change we need through individual lawsuits,” Larios explains to NPR. “We need state law to do that.” The NYCLU has been working hard to pass the Gender Identity Respect, Dignity and Safety Act, which would enshrine all of the changes made as a result of Holland’s lawsuit and other lawsuits like hers into state law.

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