A transgender woman in New York has achieved a significant settlement with Broome County after experiencing violence, discrimination and the denial of medical care while in custody at Broome County Jail.
Broome County will adopt new policies affirming the rights of transgender people in the jail after a woman said she was discriminated against while in custody at the jail.
Makyyla Holland, a 25-year-old Black transgender woman, reached a settlement with the county Thursday after filing a lawsuit in 2022 saying she was the victim of multiple forms of harassment, including physical abuse, misgendering and refusal of access to medication and commissary items during her time in at the jail in 2021.
As part of the settlement, the county will pay Holland $160,000 for the harms she suffered, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF).
“No one should ever have to go through what I went through at the Broome County Jail and I am so grateful that with this new policy, hopefully, no one else ever will,” Holland said in a written statement. “This policy and policies like it can impact a lot of my community and I will continue to fight to ensure that no other trans person in New York or anywhere has to endure what I did.”
What the new policies entail
Under the settlement, the county is changing its policies to comply with federal and state laws, according to a statement from the NYCLU and TLDEF. Specifically, the county will:
- House people consistent with their gender identity or within the unit consistent with the sex designation the person in custody believes is safest for them.
- Conduct searches consistent with the person in custody’s own view of what gender officer would be safest to perform the search.
- Ensure that staff at the jail respect a person’s gender identity in all other contexts, including name and pronoun use.
- Ensure access to clothing and toiletry items consistent with a person’s gender identity,…
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