Cruel And Unusual Summary

In this documentary, Cruel and Unusual, transgender women such as Ashley, Linda, Anna, Yolanda, and Ophelia tell their story. These women are incarcerated in men’s prisons across the U.S. from Wyoming to New Jersey to Florida. These people are denied both medical and psychological help and they are victims of rape and violence. This documentary visits the idea of this treatment being cruel and unusual. These transgender women who are presented in this documentary committed some sort of crime and found themselves in state and federal prisons: for males. These are people whose sex and gender don’t match. They are biological men who have lived their lives on the outside as women, however are placed in prisons based on their genitals. This situation presents serious issues for both sides; a feminine person in a males prison is at risk for extensive harassment, humiliation, and even sexual violence. On the other end of the spectrum, prison officials are reluctant to place anyone with a penis in a women’s prison. Hundreds, if not thousands are sentenced to male facilities where they are forced to live as men, among men, without the hormone treatment they have come to rely on for

However, psychologists and lawyers who have taken up cases within these situations suspect that the numbers are probably extremely higher then one would expect. There’s even some arguments that the transgender population is extremely over-incarcerated compared to their population. In telling these women’s stories, this documentary untangles the both unusual and complicated issue around being a transgender women in a male facility. While most transgender cases are dismissed, a few have won the right to protection from violence and the right to hormone treatment. In Canada, transgender women have the right to transition surgery and placement in female