Kristina Olvera Says She is a Woman. The Prison System Says He is a Man.

[ErikJ]

http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-22429-kristina-olvera-says-she-is-a-woman-the-prison-system-says-he-is-a-man.html

Kristina Olvera Says She is a Woman. The Prison System Says He is a Man.

The fight for justice for Oregon's transgender inmates.

https://images.washingtonpost.com/?op=resize&url=&mode=crop&w=1200&q=99
Kristina Olvera wants to enjoy the simple pleasures of crossing her legs when she sits, applying eyeliner and pouting her lips.

Her landlord disapproves when she plays with her hair, grows out her nails or wears tight jeans.

That landlord, the Oregon Department of Corrections, recognizes her only as a man—Jose Antonio Olvera, 26, a heroin addict and career petty criminal who was sentenced to 28 months in prison after stealing nine pairs of jeans from Diesel in the Pearl District and $500 in merchandise from the downtown Sephora in 2012.

Olvera had been living as a woman and taking estrogen when the state sent her to the Columbia River Correctional Institution in Northeast Portland in January 2013.

There, Olvera says, prison officials have violated her constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment by denying her necessary medical and mental health care recommended for people who are transgender—that is, someone who identifies with, and usually wants to be, the opposite gender.

"I'm a human with rights and feelings that are being trampled on over and over by the Department of Corrections," Olvera wrote to prison officials in a tort claim last month.


Olvera's condition, gender dysphoria, isn't some made-up complaint concocted by a prisoner looking to make trouble. It's a widely established medical and psychiatric diagnosis, for which treatment includes hormones and allowing the subject to live as the opposite sex.

Olvera is not alone. Prison officials say they know of at least 10 such inmates in the state system.

Corrections department records obtained by WW show Oregon prison officials have for years been denying inmates with gender dysphoria medical and mental health treatment related to their diagnoses, even when treatment has been called for by physicians and other medical professionals.

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http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-22429-kristina-olvera-says-she-is-a-woman-the-prison-system-says-he-is-a-man.html

[StarTrombone]

1. How about just make the entire prison system gender neutral

That way everybody is treated equally and everyone will be happy

It really is the next step

[Demonaut]

2. with forced contraception? or abortions when needed or asked for?

because if I was in a mixed gender prison with nothing to do...well, you get the picture

[StarTrombone]

4. Isn't that one of the arguments that the military has been making

To deny women equality in the services

Sounds familiar

[Demonaut]

8. you're making the a comparison?

[StarTrombone]

10. Absolutly

Ever lived in the on-base barracks?

[Demonaut]

11. yes, but being military we had codes to follow..there is no comparison to jail

and who says transgendered are attracted to the sex they are transitioning from?

[Travis_0004]

3. No

You dont see a problem putting men and women in the same cell or have them both in the same area at the same time?

I dont think mixed prison will happen anytime, nor should they.

im sure in minimum security they can share a yard, but stull need seperate dorms at night.

[ErikJ]

5. No need. Just transgenders.

I've known Christina about a year or 2 just as a good friend of a friend. What I know of her is that she would be much more trouble in the men's prison than the female prison. Both predator wise and victim wise. Anyway she got out and is now holding a job with the state as some kind of counselor I think. She's a very flamboyant wild person so I dont know how thats working out.

[StarTrombone]

6. So all individuals should be treated equally

Just some more equal than others then?

Special treatment for special people

Where does that end and who decides

[ErikJ]

7. Equal rights are not special rights.

as the bumpersticker says. Gays should have the right to be married like everybody else and transgenders should have the right to use the bathroom where they feel safest and most comfortable. So transgenders should have the right to be in the prison they feel most comfortable and safest in.

[Rex]

9. See her first mistake was stealing some jeans and not millions of dollars from home owners.

Her crime was far too small, she was not too big to fail.