Transgender and Gender Diverse Identity, Mental Health Conditions, and Mental Health Care in U.S. Prisons

Prisons, as total institutions organized around the sex/gender binary, are highly gendered institutions. Individual experiences of prison, therefore, vary dramatically by gender identity due to pains of imprisonment experienced differently by people experiencing incarceration. Building on the gendered pains of imprisonment literature, we use the public-use 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates to expand on previous research exploring the disproportionate mental health burden experienced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals who are incarcerated relative to cisgender men and women who are incarcerated. We disaggregate the TGD group to examine the different mental health burdens of TGD individuals and how the methodological task of categorizing gender identities can affect our understanding of mental health in prison. Results highlight the theoretical importance of acknowledging the stressful carceral environment and its impacts on psychological well-being and the methodological importance of understanding how decisions around the categorization of gender identity can differently impact our understanding of diverse individuals within the already-marginalized TGD population in prisons.