Chris Lange, FISM News
The Department of Justice has allocated $1.5 million to implement “transgender programming curriculum” across all U.S. federal prisons.
The curriculum will offer three programs focused on “reentry, transition acceptance,” and transgender support groups, according to a Fox News report.
Inmates will receive instruction on “techniques to seek support for mental health concerns and skills to advocate for physical, emotional, and sexual health and safety,” the office of public affairs for the department’s Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.
The curriculum will offer transgender inmates assistance with transitioning back into society and establish a support group for the purpose of “addressing reentry needs and managing identity concerns,” according to the statement. Each program will include “full curricula and facilitator’s guides, the use of instructional workbooks, and videos.”
The BOP said the programs’ details are still being worked out and are expected to be finalized by the end of September.
The program’s development is being overseen by The Change Companies, a privately-owned entity in Carson City, Nevada. The organization has received $3.4 million in awards from the BOP in California, Kansas, Nevada, and West Virginia since 2008.
The $1.5 million contract for transgender-specific programming represents one of the largest ever awarded by the BOP to date.
The agency said that it “recognizes the importance of appropriate gender-affirming management and treatment of transgender individuals in its custody.”
“By entering into a contract with The Change Companies, the BOP is able to expand program offerings for transgender inmates,” the statement continued.
According to data provided by the federal agency and analyzed by The Epoch Times, less than one percent (1,414) federal inmates identify as transgender from among 158,033 federal inmates currently under the BOP’s charge.