Join the rally to show your solidarity with a trans youth of color who is currently being held in solitary confinement in an adult prison in Connecticut. As Cece McDonald reminded us on Monday night, there’s no safe prison for trans people because prisons aren’t safe for anyone. But as long as our community members are incarcerated, we can work to ensure that they are safe, free from isolation and violence, and their voices are heard.
Click here to learn more about the action in New York.
When: Friday, April 25, 1 PM
Where: ACS – 150 Williams Street, NYC
Take the A, C, J, 2 or the 3 train downtown to the Fulton Street stop
Join Justice for Jane with the following demands:
1. Connecticut Department of Corrections: Do not violate “Jane Doe’s” protected status as a transgender woman by transferring her to a male facility.
2. Connecticut Department of Children and Families: Remove “Jane Doe” immediately from the York Correctional Facility and place her in a safe, accepting, therapeutic environment. Immediately restore Jane’s access to therapy, educational materials and regular human interaction.
3. Connecticut General Assembly: Repeal CT state statute 17A-12, which is the statute DCF used to unjustly imprison “Jane Doe”
If you are not in New York or are not able to make it in person on Friday, you can still take action:
1. Sign the Change.org petition in support of Jane’s transfer out of prison: http://t.co/jhhN27ESkf
2. Contact Governor Dannel Malloy and tell him that this teen should be released from prison, returned to state custody, and placed in a juvenile facility with youth of her expressed, not assigned, gender. Email him at Governor.Malloy@CT.gov and call him at (800) 406-1527.
3. Share on social media! Set your profile picture to our Justice for Jane image, take a photo with #justiceforjane written on a piece of paper, and post the petition on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #justiceforjane #girlslikeus
4. Write a letter to Jane to show your support. Jane needs to know that folks care about her and are standing behind her, and you can get a letter to Jane through her attorney, Aaron Romano (aaronromano@attorneyaaron
About the issue: A 16 year old transgender girl is currently being held in an adult prison even though she has not been convicted of any crime and has no criminal charges against her. A survivor of numerous instances of violence and abuse, Jane Doe is now being held in solitary confinement for 22-23 hours per day, without access to education or contact with peers her own age. Prison is no place for children, and it is no place for Jane. Join Justice for Jane in front of the Headquarters of the Department of Children and Families in Hartford to protest the dangerous, unfair, and inhumane placement of Jane Doe, and to demand that she be moved to a facility where her needs can better be met.
Before being transferred to prison, Jane was in the custody of DCF and was living in a treatment home for traumatized youth. Although authorities claim that they petitioned for Jane’s transfer to prison because Jane assaulted a DCF staffer, no criminal charges are pending against her, and the DCF’s decision to place her straight into an adult prison sets a dangerous and unjust precedent. Jane has stated that, “I feel that DCF has failed to protect me from harm and I am now thrown into prison because they have refused to help me . . . I can feel myself growing more and more isolated, frustrated, and feeling alone in my current isolation.”
Jane is currently being housed in the mental health unit of a prison for adult women, but the Department of Corrections has indicated that it may transfer Jane to a prison for men. If Jane stays where she is, she will continue to experience severe psychological and emotional harm as a result of her isolation. If she is transferred to the men’s facility, her life will be in even greater danger, and she will be put at an even higher risk for abuse and sexual assault.
We have the power to show our solidarity with Jane and support her in determining her own safety and survival needs. The Commissioner of DCF, Joette Katz, can and should get Jane out of prison and put her back into DCF custody immediately, without going to court or further compromising Jane’s health and well-being. Please join us as we call on Commissioner Katz to take back Jane Doe and make good on DCF’s responsibility to look after the well-being of all people.
BACKGROUND ON THE CASE:
Read Jane Doe’s affidavit about her life, experiences with DCF, and current incarceration here (note: document contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual abuse): https://
Read an overview of the case here:
“How the Connecticut Department of Children & Families is Failing a Trans Girl of Color,” online at http://feministing.com/
Additional articles and editorials:
http://www.nhregister.com/
http://www.courant.com/
http://ctmirror.org/
http://
http://
http://www.takepart.com/
Read the notes from a discussion about the case with Commissioner Katz here: https://docs.google.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
@Justice4JaneCT
#JusticeforJane #girlslikeus #WeAreHuman
To learn more about SRLP’s work to resist state violence and transphobia and to improve conditions for trans people in prison, visit http://srlp.org/prisoner-advisory-committee
You can help ensure that our crucial work continues by making a donation at http://srlp.org/donate
[…] her. Additionally, the coalition is demanding that DCF Commissioner Joette Katz be fired, that CT statute 17a-12, which allows DCF to imprison children without charges, be overturned and that there be an independent investigation launched into DCF’s abuses. On October […]
[…] her. Additionally, the coalition is demanding that DCF Commissioner Joette Katz be fired, that CT statute 17a-12, which allows DCF to imprison children without charges, be overturned and that there be an independent investigation launched into DCF’s abuses. On October 14, […]
[…] her. Additionally, the coalition is demanding that DCF Commissioner Joette Katz be fired, that CT statute 17a-12, which allows DCF to imprison children without charges, be overturned and that there be an independent investigation launched into DCF’s abuses. On October 14, […]