PITTSBURGH — Community advocates are urging Allegheny County officials to reaffirm protections for transgender and intersex people held at the county jail after a recent federal directive has raised concerns about compliance with anti-sexual assault standards.

The issue surfaced publicly last week at a meeting of the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board, where members of ACT UP Pittsburgh, the local chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, pointed to a December memo from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The memo instructed auditors, typically hired by correctional facilities, to stop assessing compliance with certain Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, protections for transgender, intersex and gender nonconforming inmates.

Although the memo signals a pullback in federal oversight, advocates are warning local officials that the underlying regulations remain legally binding and that any lapse in enforcement at the jail could increase the risk of sexual violence and expose the county to civil liability.

"I shouldn't have to say this, but I believe that rape shouldn't be a punishment for anyone for any crime. Not a misdemeanor, not a felony, not while you're awaiting detention," Jessie Ulibarri, a member of ACT UP Pittsburgh, said at the jail board meeting last week.

Warden Trevor Wingard said during the meeting that the Allegheny County Jail is not ignoring the guidelines and that "nothing's changed." Still, advocates argued that recent federal guidance could weaken protections if local officials do not act.

The memo is one of the latest moves from the Trump administration impacting LGBTQ+ people, following an executive order that directs agencies to treat sex as a fixed binary that is unchangeable, ending recognition of gender identity.

In a report shared with the jail and the oversight board, ACT UP Pittsburgh urged county leaders to adopt binding local requirements, conduct independent audits of jail practices and publicly release compliance reports to ensure protections for transgender and intersex inmates remain in place.

"For the sake of reducing future liability, if not for moral reasons, the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board should take action to assure that the ACJ remains in compliance with current rules concerning the protection of transgender and intersex inmates," the group wrote in a report obtained by the Post-Gazette.

Among its requests, ACT UP called for collaboration with LGBTQ+ and prison reform organizations to craft a cohesive jail policy and to submit comments to the DOJ in opposition of removing these protections if the department seeks their repeal.

A 'zero tolerance' policy

The Prison Rape Elimination Act was first passed in 2003 to "provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in federal, state and local institutions and to provide information, resources, recommendations and funding to protect individuals from prison rape," according to the National PREA Resource Center.

Included in the act are standards approved by the DOJ, which address prevention and responsive planning, reporting, training and education, screening for sexual abuse risk, investigations, state audits and compliance, and more.

The act mandates regular audits for prisons and jails, which typically include interviews with staff and inmates, tours and access to all areas of the facility and reviews of existing procedures and other documents to ensure officials are doing everything they can to prevent sexual abuse and harassment.

According to the memo, obtained and published by nonprofit news outlet Prism Reports, portions of those PREA standards are now considered in conflict with Executive Order 14168, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."

In the memo, the DOJ instructs all auditors to "immediately pause" from making compliance determinations for several PREA subsections, including those that relate to screening transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming inmates for risks of victimization; limits to cross-gender viewing and searches; how to communicate effectively and professionally with inmates (including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or gender nonconforming inmates;) and considering if a sexual abuse incident was motivated by an inmate's gender identity or identity as transgender or intersex.

The memo also states that the impacted provisions would be removed from PREA's online audit system and a "not applicable option" will be included with a reminder to the auditor that they "must" select that option. It is unclear if the online system has been updated to reflect those options since the memo was published.

In its 2024 annual PREA report, the Allegheny County Jail outlined 11 allegations, which ranged from "inmate-on-inmate non-consensual acts" to "staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct." The year before that, there were nine reported allegations. The published reports do not include any demographic information.

Of the allegations in 2024, one was substantiated, meaning the incident was investigated and determined to have occurred, and it involved a nonconsensual act between inmates.

One staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct allegation was unsubstantiated — it was investigated, but evidence was insufficient to make a final determination that the incident occurred — and another was investigated, but determined not to have occurred.

The report also includes allegations made within programs that are contracted to provide alternative housing for inmates.

At Passages to Recovery, which offers alcohol and drug treatment, 11 allegations were reported, including one substantiated sexual harassment incident between inmates. At Renewal Inc., which provides re-entry services, 11 allegations were reported, with two substantiated inmate-on-inmate sexual harassment incidents.

The Allegheny County Bureau of Corrections also established guidelines for providing services in a "humane and respectful manner" to transgender and intersex inmates, while ensuring they are housed "safely and efficiently to the greatest extent possible."

For housing, the policy states initial decisions should be based on the inmate's responses to the Booking Observation Questions, considerations of health, safety and security, and the inmate's legal gender identity until a committee determines long-term housing.

The housing committee, which includes representatives from various jail departments and a PREA compliance manager, is expected to meet within 72 hours of the inmate being processed to determine if they should be placed in general population or in a protective custody unit of "the gender consistent with their gender identity."

Also included in the guidelines is a zero-tolerance policy for any staff sexual harassment or sexual misconduct toward transgender and intersex inmates, as well as the use of derogatory terms toward transgender and intersex inmates and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Instructions for how to handle questions related to gender identity and expression, searches, complaints and grievances, inmate services and screening information of transgender and intersex inmates are also outlined in the policy.

A call for more protection

Despite these guidelines — which were established in 2016 and reviewed again in 2024 — advocates have long been vocal about the need for better protection of marginalized groups, especially transgender women, at the jail.

"Our policies are still vague and leave room for the mistreatment of trans women," ACT UP Pittsburgh member B. Kleymeyer said at last week's jail oversight board meeting.

In 2019, former transgender inmates and other advocates used public comment periods to tell jail oversight board members about transgender women often being housed with men and exposed to violence and harassment at the jail.

The county in 2022 reached a $300,000 settlement with Jules Williams, a transgender woman who said she was sexually assaulted in 2015 after being incarcerated with a male inmate at the Allegheny County Jail.

"No amount of money can undo the trauma suffered by Williams at Allegheny County Jail, but we hope that this settlement will put jails and prisons across the commonwealth on notice that they have an obligation to protect people in their custody," Reggie Shuford, executive director of ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement at the time of the settlement.

Over the last several months, Wingard said, jail officials have conducted several meetings with transgender people within the facility and have welcomed feedback from community leaders on related issues.

Following last week's meeting and report, Ulibarri of ACT UP Pittsburgh told the Post-Gazette he hopes these conversations continue and lead to concrete safeguards on the local level.

"I can't predict what will happen at the federal level around any of the laws that the executive orders attempt to undermine or eliminate," he said. "But I can say when violence is encouraged against citizens in our backyard — our neighbors, our friends, our family — it's the responsibility of community members to step up and say that can't happen here, that won't happen here."

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