In case you aren't familiar with it, PREA is the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.

The National PREA Resource Center has clarified guidelines set in 2012 regarding the treatment of transgender inmates within the prison system, stating Thursday that any policy that houses transgender or intersex inmates based exclusively on external genital anatomy violates PREA standards.

Standard 115.42(c): In deciding whether to assign a transgender or intersex inmate to a facility for male or female inmates, and in making other housing and programming assignments, the agency shall consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the inmate’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems.

(e) A transgender or intersex inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety shall be given serious consideration.

Think about that: This is a better situation than transgender people are facing in North Carolina in regards to restrooms usage.

About a year ago the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a suit on behalf of trans woman prisoner Ashley Diamond, who was denied medical care and repeatedly raped and assaulted by other prisoners while she was held at a men's prison in Georgia.

Last Friday a settlement was announced in the case.

Diamond was released from prison last August after her case got publicized.

She had been serving a sentence for a probation violation stemming from a nonviolent crime. She was denied female hormones she had been receiving for 17 years – medically necessary care for her gender dysphoria. She was sexually assaulted by other prisoners at least eight times while incarcerated.

As part of the agreement, the Georgia Department of Corrections agreed to pay Diamond, 37, an undisclosed financial settlement.

It seems to be a day for skimming the news involving the trans community. What do we discover?

The PP shooter, Robert Lewis Dear, is not transgender, but this won't stop right-wingers from using the claim, or anything else they can grab on to in order to demonize transgender people as threats to public safety.

Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton has been found guilty of choking and then drowning transgender woman Jennifer Laude in Olangapo City, The Philippines.

From all outward appearances, Tara Hudson has a drinking problem.

It is not unusual to discover that transgender people self-medicate as we attempt to survive our dysphoria. Sometimes that continues to be a problem after we transition.

On a personal level, I will admit that I spent my entire transition stoned on marijuana 24/7.

Self-medicating can, of course, lead to encounters with the legal system. That appears to have generated a bunch of Tara's past history...which ended up biting her in the ass.

Tara is a make-up artist by trade. Last Boxing Day she imbibed too much, to the point that she was cut off by a bar manager. An argument ensued, during which Tara headbutted bar manager Christopher Dyer and was arrested. She admitted to the crime in Bristol Crown Court.

Despite the fact that she has lived her entire adult life as a woman and has had six years of sex-reassignment surgery, she was sentenced to serve twelve weeks in a prison for men because her passport still lists her as male.

In a decision in Maryland Administrative LAw Judge Denise Shaffer has ruled that officials at Patuxent Institution in Jessup Maryland have failed to comply with the national standards for protection of sexual abuse as set forth in the Prisoner Rape Elimination Act.

Sandy Brown, a 40-year-old transgender woman, was serving a five-year sentence for assault in 2014 when she was placed in 24-hour solitary confinement for 66 days at Patuxent after a routine mental health screening. While so housed, Brown says that guards routinely watched her shower and encouraged her to commit suicide.

They didn't see me for the human being I am.

They treated me like a circus act. I understand how animals at the zoo feel now. They gawked, pointed, made fun of me and tried to break my spirit.

These were people I’d never met, people I’d never done anything to.

--Brown

PREA requires prisons to have clear policies and mandatory training for prison personnel concerning the treatment of transgender inmates.

The 2015 US Conference on AIDS was held September 10-13 in Washington, DC. On the opening day dozens of transgender and gender-nonconforming people seized the stage at the lunchtime plenary session to draw attention to HIV+ gender-variant people.

The group was chanting, We are not gay men! to protest the inclusion of trans women in gay male research and statistics.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has a new plan.

Under a new policy announced yesterday Sheriff Mirkarimi intends to house all inmates in San Francisco County's jails by their gender identity.

He hopes to have transgender inmates living with their preferred population before 2016.

But transgender inmates who choose to remain in segregated housing or to continue living with other inmates who share the their birth sex can do so, according to Kenya Briggs, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

I carry the perspective forward that the transgender population is marginalized on the streets of America. Consider how magnified that treatment is inside prisons and jails.

--Mirkarimi