bar advocate

welcome, everyone, and thank you for joiningus today for "in danger: lesbian, gay, and bisexual survivors behind bars.” my nameis kamilah willingham. i am a program assistant at jdi, and i’ll be your moderator today.jdi is a health and human rights organization that works to end sexual violence in all formsof detention. jdi has three core goals: to hold government officials and agencies accountablefor sexual abuse in their facilities, to change public attitudes about sexual violence behindbars, and to insure survivors of prisoner rape get the help that they need. we’d liketo take a quick moment to thank the office on violence against women for its generoussupport of this webinar, and our larger project called no bad victims: support for incarceratedsurvivors. just a few things before we get

started. you can submit questions and commentsthroughout the webinar using the questions box on the right side of your screen. thiswebinar is being recorded and a link to the recording will be emailed to you in the nextfew days, along with a link to the evaluation. it will be closed-captioned. this webinarwill also be posted on the jdi website. please make a note of the link on the screen. theweb page also hosts all of our previous webinars and a lot more resources for advocates. thiswebinar aims to help community-based rape crisis organizations and other service providerslike yourselves understand the issues facing lesbian, gay, and bisexual survivors in adultand juvenile detention. today’s webinar will focus on how you, as advocates, can provideservices for this extremely vulnerable population.

we’re going to cover the following: we’llreview some of the basics, including definitions, the prevalence of sexual abuse of lesbian,gay, and bisexual inmates, and the dynamics of this abuse in both men’s and women’sinstitutions. we’ll discuss the widespread homophobia in prisons and jails nationwideand how such attitudes allow sexual violence to thrive, and using real stories from inmates,we’ll guide you through scenarios and best practices for helping lesbian, gay, and bisexualsurvivors heal and stay safe. finally, we’ll end with time for questions and answers. i’mjust going to make a quick note on some terms before we move on. while law enforcement,prosecutors, and victim rights groups tend to use the term "victim” in recognitionof the crime that was committed, jdi prefers

to use the term "survivor.” we do this tohonor the strength and resiliency it takes to live through a sexual assault and for thatperson to heal. the terms "inmates,” "prisoners,” and "residents” will be used somewhat interchangeablyto refer to incarcerated people. the term "inmate” is used in the prison rape eliminationact or prea standards to refer to people detained in a prison or jail. "resident” is usedfor people detained in community confinement center or a juvenile facility. if you havequestions about a specific term, please use the questions box and a jdi staff member willassist you. we’re going to start with a survivor story. this is bryson, formerly knownas kendall spruce. bryson was beaten and raped several times in an arkansas state prison.i’m going to read you the testimony he delivered

before the national prison rape eliminationcommission in 2005. "hello. my name is kendall spruce and i’m here to tell you about whathappened to me in an arkansas state prison. i was raped by at least 27 different inmatesover a nine-month period. i don’t have to tell you that it was the worst nine monthsof my life. i was sentenced to six years in prison in 1991 on a probation violation. iwas originally convicted for forging a check to buy crack cocaine. when i went to prisoni was 28 years old, i weighed 123 pounds, and i was scared to death. i was right tobe afraid. i am bisexual, but that doesn’t mean i want to have sex with just anyone.as soon as i got there inmates started acting like they were my friends so they could takeadvantage of me. i told them i wasn’t going

to put up with that. i didn’t want to berobbed of my manhood. but they jumped on me. they beat me. within two weeks, i was rapedat knifepoint. being raped at knifepoint was the worst thing i could ever imagine. thephysical pain was devastating, but the emotional pain was even worse. i reported the rape andwas sent to protective custody, but i wasn’t safe there either. they put all kinds of peoplein protective custody, including sexual predators. i was put in a cell with a rapist who hadfull blown aids. within two days he forced me to give him oral sex and anally raped me.i yelled for the guard but it was so loud in there; no one came to help me. i finallyhad to flood the cell to get a guard to come. because i was raped i got labeled "faggot.”everywhere i walked, everyone looked at me

like i was a target. it opened the door fora lot of other predators. even the administrators thought it was okay for a "faggot” to beraped. they said, "oh, you must like it.” i’m here to tell you that no one wants tobe raped. no one likes being violently attacked. i documented the abuse. i filed grievances.i followed all of the procedures to report what was happening to me, but no one cared.they just moved me from cell to cell. this went on for nine months. i went through ninemonths of torture and nine months of hell that could have been avoided. in august istarted bleeding really bad from the rectum. i didn’t want to go to the infirmary becausei was still so ashamed about what had happened to me, but i had to. they gave me a test andthat’s when i got the devastating news.

i was hiv-positive. i felt suicidal. i feltlike my world had come to an end. i cried and cried. i felt ashamed, embarrassed, degraded,and humiliated. i haven’t forgotten those feelings. you never forget. you never healemotionally. there isn’t a day that goes by that i don’t think about this. finally,i was placed in a cell by myself in administrative segregation. the only way i could stay safewas to deliberately disobey the rules so i could get away from my predators. eventuallyi was interviewed by an investigator from the state police and i made a report of everyassault i survived in prison. i had to list all of the inmates who sexually assaultedme and i came up with 27 names. sometimes just one inmate assaulted me and sometimesthey attacked me in groups. it went on almost

every day for the nine months i spent in thatfacility. i know i had to pay the price for what i did, but i have paid double price.that check i wrote cost me my life. every day i wake up and i’m just grateful thati’m still here. sometimes i ask god "why me? why did this happen to me?” i have alreadyaccepted that i’m going to die, but before i do, i want to see justice in the prisonsystem. the only way to help me now is to put an end to rape in prison. thank you.”bryson passed away in 2010 and what happened to him is horrifying. i wish i could say thathis story is unique but unfortunately, what happened to him is all too common. peoplewho identify as or who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, or bisexual are often subjectedto extreme violence behind bars. we hear from

countless survivors who, like bryson, areridiculed when they report this violence, if they even feel safe enough to reach outfor help. as shocking as it is, many lesbian, gay, and bisexual inmates still hear thatthey "must have liked it” when they try to report a rape. over the next hour we’lltalk about the dynamics of the abuse against lesbian, gay, and bisexual prisoners, andthe homophobic and misogynistic culture that enables it. just a reminder that we’ve coveredproviding direct services to prisoners in previous webinars, and all of that is availableon our advocate resources page. before we get started i’d like to get an idea of whatyou are hoping to learn from today’s webinar. you can submit your response by typing itinto the question box. we’ll answer as many

of these as we can throughout the webinar,and if we don’t get to something, feel free to reach out to us afterwards by email atadvocate@justdetention.org. i’d now like to introduce linda mcfarlane, a deputy executivedirector at jdi who is going to go over some basic information that will help you workwith this population. linda is a licensed clinical social worker with decades of experienceworking with survivors of sexual abuse in various settings, including a prison and ayouth facility. linda has provided training to thousands of rape crisis counselors andcorrections officials on providing services to incarcerated survivors. thanks so much, kamilah. we know that manyof you have already worked with lesbian, gay,

and bisexual survivors, and so some of whati’m about to talk about might be review for you, but it’s important for everyoneto be on the same page and understand how we are using these terms today. so let’sreview a few terms. sexual orientation describes people’s physical and romantic attractionsto other people. a person’s sexual orientation can be, but is not limited to, straight, gay,lesbian, or bisexual. homophobia includes a range of negative attitudes and feelingsabout lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, or people who are identified or perceived tobe lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. heterosexism is the assumption that heterosexualityis "normal” and is also superior or more desirable than homosexuality or bisexuality."queer” is widely used, often by young people

or in academic settings, and the term "queer”is an all-encompassing term that describes a range of identities. it’s a term thathas been re-appropriated from its original negative meaning, but it’s still very sensitiveor offensive to some, depending on the culture and geographic area, so we generally suggestrefraining from using it with clients or in a professional setting, certainly in a prisonor jail setting, unless your client specifically asks you to identify them that way. genderidentity is the psychological sense of being male, female, or in-between or something else,and we’ll go into gender identity and the gender spectrum in much more detail in ournext two webinars that will be coming up, which focus on helping transgender inmates.gender nonconforming means a person whose

appearance or manner does not conform to traditionalexpectations of their gender. so a person might be straight and gender nonconforming.many times gender nonconforming people have similar experiences as lesbian, gay, and bisexualpeople, again, especially in the prison, jail, and corrections context, because people justassume that they’re lesbian, gay, or bisexual. we’re also going to use the term "masculine-”or "feminine-presenting” today to describe people who are gender nonconforming. let’stake a look at some of the statistics and research regarding lesbian, gay, and bisexualprisoners. in an anonymous survey of inmates that was conducted by the bureau of justicestatistics, one in 12 jail inmates who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or "other,” meaningother than straight, in this context, stated

that they were sexually abused by anotherinmate. one in eight prison inmates who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other than straightsaid that they were sexually abused by another inmate. so we’re looking at the differencebetween prisons and jails there. in every subgroup that was measured by sex, race, orhispanic origin, age, education levels, and mental health problems, non-heterosexual,so lgb or other than straight, prison and jail inmates reported higher rates of inmateon inmate sexual victimization than heterosexual inmates. more than one in three gay and bisexualmen were sexually abused while in custody, and again, that is an astronomically higherrate than the general population. at jdi the majority of survivors we hear from contactus by letter, which is still the main way

that prisoners can communicate with the outsideworld. many of those whom we hear from every day are lesbian, gay, or bisexual people whoare behind bars, who talk about their experiences of being targeted because of their sexualorientation. james, a survivor in a florida prison, wrote to us "i am a 22 year old gayman. i have been raped twice in the last three years and sexually harassed for the past yearand a half.” and unfortunately, james’ experience, particularly this sort of dailysexual harassment, is not that unusual. it’s what we hear from people all across the country.lesbian and bisexual women are two times more likely to be sexually abused by staff membersthan their heterosexual peers are. and bisexual men, in particular, are at higher risk ofsexual abuse by staff, and also bisexual women

are, then again, at higher risk of sexualabuse, but by other inmates. one survivor whose story really speaks to the targetingof bisexual prisoners is alisha, and she was sexually abused by an officer in what shedescribed as an ongoing abusive relationship. i just want to step back to remind peoplethat staff members and inmates, prisoners, detainees can never have a consensual relationshipbecause of the power differential. so any "relationship” is inherently abusive. alishatold us that "because i’m bisexual, he was constantly accusing me of having relationshipswith other inmates.” and this emphasizes the harmful stereotype that bisexual people,and this seems to be especially acute still in corrections settings, are hypersexual andwill have sex with anybody, men or women alike.

you also heard that mentioned by bryson’sstory that kamilah shared earlier. bureau of justice statistics studies show that injuvenile detention facilities, lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are seven times more likelyto be sexually abused by other residents than straight youth are. i think that troy’sstory illustrates how vulnerable lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are to sexual abuse.troy was first incarcerated when he was only 12 years old, and he spent 24 years behindbars, in and out of youth and then adult facilities. in a written testimony to congress in 2010,troy described the abuse he endured as a child in detention. "i didn’t know my sexual orientation,but i knew i was different. soon after entering juvenile hall, one boy forced me to have oralsex with him in the shower area. he claimed

that he would protect me from others, buthe didn’t.” troy is a member of jdi’s survivor council, and he is a powerful advocate.he has spoken widely about his experiences and he speaks about being sexually harassedand abused in every facility that he was in and explains that this repeated trauma ledhim to self-destructive acts that continued the cycle of incarceration for him. i’mhappy now to introduce boa smith, who is a program assistant at jdi, and she’s goingto talk about the culture of homophobia behind bars. thank you, linda. let’s take a minute andlook at homophobia in our communities. what forms does it take? attacking people who peoplethink might be lesbian, gay, bisexual, bullying

in school, on social media, church condemnation,family rejection. how about some things lesbian, gay, or bisexual people might hear in thehome, like "a real man doesn’t cry,” "a real man plays sports,” "a real man doesn’twalk like that,” or "a real woman speaks in a gentle tone,” "a real woman wears makeup,”"a real woman is reserved”? although we have made progress, misogyny and homophobiaare still common in our culture. it may be less socially acceptable to condone violencetowards lgb people, but it’s still a part of the culture. remember that people in prisonsand jails and the staff who work there are all affected by this culture of homophobia.jokes about violence against prisoners, particularly rape, are still everywhere. movies, televisionshows, including adult and children’s cartoons,

and comedians make light of prisoner rapeall the time. police officers in crime dramas threaten suspects with rape in prison. whohasn’t heard "don’t drop the soap” or "you might become big bubba’s next girlfriend”?the message to male prisoners is that someone who is raped is cast in a role of a womanand there is nothing worse than that. being gay or a woman in prison equals subordinationand consent. think of homophobia and sexism that exists in general society. in prisonthese beliefs are magnified by 100, and combined with prisoner rape jokes and the acceptanceof violence against prisoners just creates a hostile and dangerous environment in manyfacilities, particularly for lesbian, gay, bisexual people. so let’s hear from younow. what are some of the myths about lesbian,

gay, bisexual people in prison that you haveheard or seen? please submit your answers in the question box. "gay for the stay.”"you can’t rape the willing.” "they wanted it.” "they commit crimes to have sex withthe same sex in prison.” "gay men are seen as wives.” "they must like it.” "prisonerswant to have sex; therefore, they want to be raped.” "trade sex for food and otherfavors.” "survival sex.” "it’s just what happens there.” all your answers areexcellent. here are a few that we often hear: "lgb people report to get even with theirlovers.” "all gay men are feminine.” "gay and bisexual men can’t be raped.” peoplealso assume that masculine-presenting men cannot be a victim in a same sex relationshipbetween men, yet we hear from many men, like

paul, a texas state prisoner, who has describedhimself as a big, muscular man, and who has nevertheless been the repeated target of rapebecause he is gay and a pacifist. there is also the myth that bisexuals are hypersexual.masculine-presenting women are predators, especially in same sex relationships if onepartner is masculine-presenting. in a county jail focus group that jdi conducted, a femaleinmate with a more masculine presentation shared, "i’m gay and if i’m around a woman,staff automatically make the assumption that i’m trying to sleep with them. they say,‘i already know. i don’t want you messing with my girls.’” and the myth that womencan’t rape other women. the realities of these ideas can be incredibly harmful in detention.we know that lgb people face barriers to reporting

sexual abuse. gay men express their identityin different ways, just like everyone else. gay and bisexual men have the right to sayno. bisexual people are not hypersexual. in fact, they often have monogamous relationships.there is nothing innately predatory about masculine-presenting women. women who aregender nonconforming can be victims as well. and lastly, women can rape other women. homophobicmyths and views of gay or bisexual men are so prevalent in prison. this is a quote fromrodney, a survivor who is in touch with jdi, and he says, "i often hear that homosexualslove being in jail and that it is akin to a kid in a candy store.” prison homophobiadoesn’t just persist among inmates. staff perpetrates the violence as well. the pictureson this slide are actual posters that staff

placed on a male inmate’s cell door. rigidgender roles certainly still exist in the community but are usually more fluid thanthey used to be. in prison, gender roles are very rigid, where masculinity equals dominanceand power and femininity equals submissiveness and weakness. if you violate expected genderroles by dressing, speaking, walking, or acting in what is considered to be a more masculineway for women or a more feminine way for men, you are punished, often through sexual harassmentand violence. in both male and female prisons, many staff view sexual abuse as a disagreementbetween lovers, an issue that needs to be worked out among themselves, the same waymany see same sex domestic violence in the community, punishment for consensual sex.in almost all corrections facilities, sex

is punishable by some form of disciplinarywrite-up. that can cause a person to have more time added to their sentence or evenbe placed in solitary confinement. it should be noted that even nonsexual behavior, likea hug or hand-holding, is assumed to be sexual if the person is lesbian, gay, or bisexual.these are terms commonly used among inmates and staff alike, when referring to lgb people.the more feminine lesbians are considered a "femme,” a "girlie-girl,” or a "wifey,”and the more masculine-presenting women are your "boyfriend,” they’re "butch,” a"stud,” or "dude.” for gay men, you have "fag,” you have "punk bitch,” which canalso be used separately as well, meaning the same thing, "fag hag,” "wife,” "girlfriend,”"homo fairy,” and they’re referred to

as "she” and "her.” they have lost theright to be a "him.” bisexual men and women are called these terms, but these terms arealso used for them in the community: "flip flop,” a "switch-hitter,” "greedy,”or "swings both ways.” bisexual people are often subject to the same terms listed forthe lesbian and the gay men. these are common terms staff use when speaking with inmateswho are lgb or are perceived to be lgb: "gay for the stay,” like someone said. this issomeone who is perceived to be straight that is now in a homosexual relationship. "turnedup” is referred to a man that is no longer viewed as one. "turned out,” this is a termused for men and women that were straight and now are considered homosexual. "homosecting,”this is a term originated by staff to explain

sex by same sex partners. and this is anotherposter created by staff that was placed in a common area for inmates. in some facilitiessexual harassing language, including staff harassing each other and talking openly withinmates about other inmates’ sexual orientation or gender identity creates a hostile environmentand is a clear sign that this facility is dangerous to all, staff and inmates alike.not all lgb inmates face the extreme homophobia and abuse we have described here. many facilitieshave done the work to train staff in respectful treatment of lgb prisoners and how to handlesexual abuse professionally. but we wanted you to have a clear picture of the culturethat many lesbian, gay, or bisexual survivors that you may help have been exposed to. i’llturn this back to linda now. thank you.

thanks so much, boa. let’s talk a littlebit more about some of the dynamics of sexual abuse against lesbian, gay, and bisexual peoplein detention. sexual harassment, such as the language that boa’s just described, is formany lgb survivors and prisoners, even if they don’t identify as survivors, a dailyexperience. abuse of authority is something that we see both in inmates who are perceivedas or are more powerful in the environment and certainly, of course, from staff. staffhave ultimate authority and abuse of that authority in any way is dangerous and createsa very dangerous environment, again, for everybody in the facility. so searches. inmates aresearched multiple times a day, pat searches, strip searches, and we hear a lot about abusivesearches and about derogatory comments regarding

sexual orientation being used during searches.we also hear a lot about invasive or rough searches, particularly from lgb survivors,and again, with the assumption that lgb people like to be touched, even without their permission.regarding staff and inmate relationships, we know from the research that staff willsometimes target lesbian, gay, or bisexual inmates for abuse, and attempt to pull theminto what is perceived as or constructed as a relationship. the inmate might even seethe relationship as consensual or even beneficial in terms of having access to things that theycouldn’t otherwise get, or even just helping make their lives a little easier. but whathappens is that of course because the staff is in control, that if that relationship takesa shift or if the inmate or prisoner themselves

wants to end it, they’re not in controlof that. the staff member is. and these relationships can never truly be consensual. protectivepairing is also called "hooking up” or "choosing a man” or "choosing a woman,” "choosinga husband, a wife,” and it mimics really the dynamics of domestic violence in the communityin terms of the power dynamics and the one-sidedness of the rule enforcement. this is perhaps themost common form of abuse that we hear about at jdi through our letters and the researchfrom the bureau of justice statistics, but also bear that out in terms of dynamics. wehear about this more from men’s facilities, but it happens in women’s as well, thatgay and bisexual prisoners face having to choose between being abused by many or bya gang, or by just one person within a protective

pairing, so sort of "i know i’m being targeted.i know i’m going to be abused. so i am going to sort of pick a protector before i can beabused by many” and seen as a forced choice and the lesser of two evils, in a way. andi think everyone here today can recognize that that is not a real choice. but from theoutside and to many staff, protective pairing relationships might seem consensual and evenuseful in maintaining order in the facility. the research also suggests that the majorityof abuse in women’s facilities takes place within the context of abusive relationshipsbetween inmates and that that is abusive has often been ignored, again, much like batteringin lesbian relationships in the community. regarding prostitution, i think abusers mayuse their power to prostitute someone. in

those protective pairing relationships i mentionedearlier, it may be that that more powerful person in the dynamic actually trades andsells their victim to other people. and i think we do hear more from lesbian, gay, andbisexual inmates that they are in danger of being forced into prostitution because oftheir overall vulnerability in the system, and because of the prevalence of abuse bystaff, and their disenfranchisement within the system. regarding gangs, we hear moreabout gangs from men’s prisons, certainly, but again, we do hear about them increasinglyfrom women’s prisons, and specifically prisons than other types of facilities like jailsor youth facilities. gangs will often sexually abuse a lesbian, gay, or bisexual inmate inexchange for protection for that person from

the gang from other gangs. and gangs can alsouse rape for initiations into the gang and for retaliation against other gangs as a wayto dehumanize a person. before we move on, i want to continue to encourage all of youto submit any questions you might have about anything we’ve covered so far, using thequestion box. there has already been a lot of great comments and questions that we’lltry to make sure we get to. and now i’d like to turn this over to desiree magsombol,a program officer at jdi. desiree provides a great deal of advocacy to the survivorsfrom whom we hear at jdi. thanks, linda. so let’s talk about how you,as advocates, can help lgb survivors behind bars. avoid assumptions. don’t assume anyone’ssexual orientation. it’s common for an lgb

person to be out in the community but closetedin detention. many gay and bisexual survivors share with us that they don’t come out forfear of persecution. as boa mentioned earlier, it’s important not to assume that someonewith a more masculine gender presentation is a perpetrator or cannot be the victim.i also want to make the point again that we often hear that inmates and staff alike believethat a gay person cannot be raped. in a recent set of interviews with state prison inmates,jdi staff heard several times that inmates would intervene if a straight prisoner wasbeing sexually assaulted but would not if the victim was gay or bisexual. acknowledgethe impact of heterosexism. understand the prevalence of myths and stereotypes, manyof which boa went over earlier, and many of

you shared your answers in the answer box.understand lgb people who report are often confronted with denial or minimization ofthe violence, ridicule, discrimination, and even further retaliation. recognize that somesurvivors have experienced so much violence that they minimize their abuse and they don’tidentify what happened to them as abuse. understand dynamic. know that consensual relationshipsand sex happen in custody, and so therefore, you’ll likely see cases of domestic violence.recognize that lesbian, gay, and bisexual survivors may be afraid or ashamed to tellyou that they chose to be in a relationship or that they exchanged sex for protectionor that their partner became a batterer. demonstrate respect and sensitivity. understand that lgbsurvivors may have a distrust of the system.

it’s also important to be patient. it maytake time for lgb people to feel safe enough to talk to you. recognize that some lesbian,gay, bisexual folks have less familial support due to family rejection in the community,but also avoid assuming that this is the case. use professional language. mirror names, pronouns,and relationship descriptors. so if somebody refers to their partner as their husband,use "husband.” and stick to simple, clear terms like "gay,” "lesbian,” and "bisexual.”avoid slang or easily misunderstood terms. demonstrate your support as an ally by makingsure that your materials are inclusive and having images of lesbian and gay, bisexualpeople in examples. partner with antiviolence and lgb support organizations. you’re notexpected to know everything about working

with lgb people. so you can seek out advocacyorganizations and request trainings for your staff. the national coalition of antiviolenceprojects is a good place to start, and there is the link below. common survivor requests.while there are many requests that survivors contact jdi about, the requests for help generallyfall into three categories: those seeking emotional support, those seeking institutionaladvocacy, and those seeking legal support or legal help. you may notice that some lesbian,gay, bisexual survivors write about very severe incidences of sexual harassment and sexualabuse. as linda and boa shared, sexual harassment and sexual abuse are so normalized that itoften takes an extreme incident for many folks to reach out for help. those with institutionaladvocacy are usually looking for help within

their facility or within the larger systemthat operates the facility and usually regarding the following: writing a grievance about theabuse, seeking a transfer to get away from the abuser, seeking a cell change to get awayfrom the abuser, asking how to protect themselves from potential abuse, and we hear that especiallyfrom gay and bisexual men, requesting to be put in or taken out of protective custodyto be protected from further abuse (protective custody is a housing unit where people whoare more vulnerable for a variety of reasons are placed and we heard a little bit of thosedynamics from bryson earlier), asking to get in or out of segregation or also known as"the hole,” or sometimes people will say, "i’m going to jail in jail” and that’swhat that is referring to and similar to protective

custody (lesbian, gay, or bisexual prisonersmay feel safer in segregation and may want to be there, or may be in greater danger fromthe staff or other segregated inmates, and be there against their will), and then challenginga disciplinary action against them received for defending themselves from an abuser. legalassistance is a huge need that you may not be able to provide. jdi does not provide legaladvice or representation. however, you can provide meaningful referrals to those whodo provide these services. in the next section, i will share portions of two survivors’stories and talk about how you can advocate for survivors in similar situations. rodneyis a gay man in a louisiana prison. soon after his arrival two inmates raped him. in hisletters he shared, "one of my rapists informed

me that he had sold me to another inmate for$20 of commissary. this was, in a word, enslavement. my body no longer belonged to me but to someoneelse, to my ‘husband,’ a rapist who totally controlled my life, with the constant threatof violence. i was raped repeatedly. if he had gambling debts, he used me to pay themoff. if he wanted sex, he used me for that.” and if we read from the slide, "i still havenightmares and have trouble sleeping. i have been suicidal and have had bouts of mentalextremes. my self-worth and self-esteem have been nonexistent.” okay, so now we’regoing to take a quick poll. i’ll give you about 30 seconds to submit your answers. sogiven what rodney told us so far, what help do you think he’s looking for? great. soit looks like the majority of folks shared

that it was "emotional support” or "morethan one of the above.” actually, most people put "more than one of the above.” great.okay. so don’t jump to conclusions about what somebody needs or doesn’t need. youwant to hear what they actually need. so first, start by validating his experience and feelings.this is probably the best and most important thing you can do for a survivor. it is possiblethat you are the first and only person who will tell him "i believe you. it wasn’tyour fault. and what you’re feeling is normal.” your emotional support is a major factor inany survivor’s healing. your acceptance and lack of judgment is critical to an lgbsurvivor’s healing. second, check in about emergency response needs, suicide, safety,and medical needs. if rodney is not at risk

to himself, is his rapist still a risk tohim? if so, safety plan. and you can see our past webinars for more information on safetyplanning that we’ve covered pretty extensively. how long ago did this happen? if not long,inform him of his rights. let him know that according to state law, and whatever yourstate law is, and then prea standard 11582, so that’s from the jails and prison standards,he has a right to medical care, prophylaxis, a sane exam. according to prea standard 11553he has a right to accompaniment by a rape crisis counselor during the exam and duringthe investigation processes. and then according to 11583 he has the right to ongoing and follow-upmedical care. knowing what rights the standards provide can be extremely useful in advocatingfor his rights with staff, and that’s especially

when you’re getting pushback from the staff.and listing the standards by numbers can also be very helpful, and we have a link lateron to the standards. discuss coping skills. he can write, talk, draw, exercise, practicebreathing exercises, or meditation to help him process his feelings. he can speak withcounselors, loved ones, or friends. a chaplain may also be a good outlet, but remember, someprisoners may not have access to somebody who is lgb friendly. in some facilities thelgb community is small, tight-knit, and supportive of each other, so he may find somebody thereto talk to. but for many, however, there isn’t anyone safe. in those cases, sometimes wesuggest a survivor write in a journal, and if it’s not safe to keep the journal, tearit up. and then a survivor might seek a pen

pal at black & pink, which is a great organization.again, there is a link later on. brainstorm informal support and self-help. many survivorsfind great satisfaction in helping others, sharing your agency’s information with others,providing emotional support to their peers, contributing to newsletters, starting informalsupport groups, and participating in informal peer education groups. this second scenarioprovides more advanced suggestions for advocacy. while most agencies don’t have the capacityto provide direct advocacy on all issues, you may decide to provide it for certain issuesor in special cases. having an outside advocate can make all the difference in the world.even if all you can provide is written correspondence, reading and answering the survivor’s lettersprovides moral support, creates a paper trail,

and lends legal legitimacy and strength toa survivor’s case. so maribel is a bisexual woman and a former sexual abuse peer educatorfrom a california prison. she shared that a female corrections officer sexually harassedher because maribel had a girlfriend. the corrections officer also subjected her toa sexually abusive search in retaliation for her involvement as a peer educator. and shesays, "after this i can’t shake that ugly feeling. i do want her to be held accountable.so i want you to know that i am going through with it. so where do i go now?” so we’regoing to pick another poll. i’ll give you 30 seconds to submit your answers again. givenwhat maribel has told us so far, what help do you think she’s looking for? great. soit looks like most of you said "more than

one of the above.” a few said, "emotionalsupport.” a lot of people said, "legal help.” and many said "institutional advocacy.”so if some of you found this one a little bit more difficult, that’s fine, becauseit was meant to be a little bit more ambiguous. as you’ll hear often from survivors whoare incarcerated, they may bring many issues to the table, so it’s okay to ask the survivorwhere he or she wants to start and help clarify the biggest need if you hear a lot of issuesin a person’s story. so first validate her experience, including the experience of homophobiaand being degraded for her sexual orientation and feelings. this is still important, eventhough she didn’t necessarily identify this as her primary issue, because it opens upa space to talk about her feelings if she

wants to do that. it shows that you believeand support her. and at the same time, it’s important not to dwell on this subject ifthat’s not what she’s identified or if she’s not receptive to it. it might feelpatronizing if this is what she’s not looking for. second, educate her about her rights.so you’re going to go back to the standards again. according to 11531 the facility issupposed to provide employees with a training on effective communication with lgbti inmates,so staff should know to use professional and not degrading language. the prea standardsrequire the facilities to reassess the survivor’s housing needs after a report of sexual abuse,essentially to keep her safe from any future perpetrators, whether that be the former correctionsofficer or other inmates who may perpetrate

against her. inform her of the emergency responsesthat you also did with rodney. third, you can also ask her where she is in the grievanceprocess. the grievance process is the internal complaint process within each facility. educateyourself about the grievance processes of the facilities that you work with most often,especially those with which you have mous. learn the official and slang terms for grievances,because they differ from place to place and sometimes don’t make sense. like in someplaces they’re called "blue forms,” yet the forms are no longer blue, because theywere blue historically. ask a person to clarify when you don’t know the word they are referringto, and keep a glossary to share with coworkers who are working with those who are incarcerated.and then inform her that she can pursue it

further with her agency’s oversight organizations.also talk about the possible risks involved in contacting an oversight agency such asunwanted attention or retaliation as a result of such advocacy efforts. in the case of peoplewho are in jails or have shorter terms, some people wait until they’re outside the facilityto pursue action afterwards. and since maribel was at a california state facility, she canwrite her state prea coordinator and the california doc’s oversight agency, the office of inspectorgeneral. so every state has a state prea coordinator; however, only a few states have an outsideoversight agency. you can see the links in the next page. the au website has the informationfor every state prea coordinator. and our resource guide, the jdi state resource guide,at the bottom of every guide are government

resources, including the oversight agencieswhere they are available. if maribel is seeking legal assistance, you can remind her thatit’s good practice to maintain logs of events and conversations and maintain all documentationthat she can. you can provide her with a referral to the state bar association or other agenciesin your area. she may want to file a case on her own, which is oftentimes the situationfor many survivors since resources are very limited in this regard. and if she wants topursue it on her own, she can reach out to the center for constitutional rights for theirfree litigation manual, which is called the jailhouse lawyer’s manual. see our stateresource guide for state bar referral services in your area. it’s important to know thatmany of these agencies don’t take individual

cases and more do class action cases. so preparesurvivors for that. and also lgb survivors may have a civil rights claim if they feelthat they were targeted for their sexual orientation. so these are some of the resources that imentioned that might be helpful for you with your work with lgb survivors. and then alsolater on we’ll provide the link to the prea standards in the question box. thank you. thanks so much, desiree. i want to encourageall of you listening to submit any questions you have about what desiree just went overor anything else from the webinar using the question box. now i’d like to share a quotefrom a survivor named clayton. clayton is a gay inmate in the texas prison system whowe’ve been in touch with for several years,

and he’s finally being released in a fewmonths. he wrote, "if it was not for all of you at jdi, i would not be alive today towrite this letter. the support i receive from you helps me stay focused and strong.” thisis the type of change that all of you listening have the power to make in people’s lives,and i hope that you feel empowered to support the claytons and brysons, the rodneys andmaribels in your own communities. and remember that you’re not alone in doing this work.there is an entire community of support out there for you, as advocates, as well. i hopeyou take advantage of the advocacy resources that desiree just went over and remember thatyou can also always contact jdi for questions or technical assistance. now my colleague,carolina aparicio is going to go over some

of your questions. thanks so much, kamilah. so our first questionis for linda, actually. "should inmates make prea reports every time a staff says the word"bitch,” because harassment is a prea violation, or should they be more selective and onlymake reports for more serious circumstances? there is the issue of being accused of cryingwolf or of being a troublemaker, even among advocates.” i think that’s actually… that’s a fantasticquestion, and i think that sort of as we would always put that decision and that power backinto the survivor’s hands, because of course only they know what’s safe for them to report,what they’ve seen. i would say that sexual

harassment, that that kind of language, ifit’s permissible to use that in a facility, that does give you a signal that that is nota safe facility. it’s certainly not a facility where staff members are being held to professionallevels of conduct. and so that if survivors feel empowered to make that report if theybelieve that it’s going to put them in less danger rather than more danger, then absolutelyit’s something that would be useful to report. but i would never sort of go back and judgea person for not feeling safe to make that report. only they can know if it is or not.so i hope that sort of answers the question. yes, it’s serious enough, and no, i don’tknow that they should. it depends on their circumstances, if that makes sense.

great. thank you. our next question. linda,if you want to chime in again, "other than patience, is there anything staff can do tomake lgb survivors feel safe enough to report sexual abuse? we already have multiple channelsfor reporting.” i think that that’s actually completelylinked to the last question and related in that i think the questioner’s point is thatit absolutely does take patience. i think that one of the things that’s happeningacross the country now and that has been happening since the prea standards have been being workedon, being implemented is that the cultures are changing and changing culture is liketurning a battleship, right? it takes time. it takes patience. it takes effort. and ithink that as prisoners see that there are

multiple channels to report, that when a reportis made it’s handled professionally, respectfully, and in a trauma-informed manner, that thingslike sexual harassment and abusive searches are taken seriously, that staff are held toa high level of professionalism, that people who are abused or need help actually are ableto get services from outside service proprietors, both lgbt organizations and rape crisis programs,and that prisoners are given that message when they first arrive, that they are told"you deserve to be safe here and we’re going to do everything, and here’s how we’regoing to do it,” then that… i think the only way we can make lgb survivors feel safeto report is by proving that they are. thank you, linda. i think that’s reallyhelpful information. so the next question

is for desiree. "desiree, you mentioned thatwe should carry images of lgbt people in stickers. how will this help me as an advocate? canyou give me an example?” sure. so like i had mentioned earlier, somepeople are not necessarily out or not necessarily comfortable maybe in talking about particularparts of their experience, and having just stickers or images, letting people know thatyou’re safe to talk to allows for that space, essentially, without having to say it aloudin the beginning. great. thank you. and another question. thisis a bit more general, but i think it could still apply to working with lgb survivors.linda, if you want to take this. "how can you advocate for inmates who say that grievancesdon’t help and staff throw away their grievances?

have you had success calling the prison directly?does this endanger the inmate further?” that’s another great question. and certainlywhen we do inmate focus groups, meet individually with inmates, we hear a lot from people theperception that grievances do nothing or that they’re just thrown away. and i think thatthere is definitely a level of frustration there. if you are hearing that, i think thatas desiree mentioned earlier, our strategy is usually to provide the resources to theprisoner themselves to advocate for themselves as a first step, but i think if you’re alocal organization and you have the resources to be able to do that kind of advocacy ofcontacting the facility, i think that can absolutely be helpful. i think that when facilitiesknow that an advocate from the outside is

paying attention, it may just bring it tothe top of their list and it certainly can give the survivor a sense that there is someprotection and empower them to continue to advocate for themselves. i think the caveathere is you really should never do that without the survivor’s permission, and that goesto your question, which is a great one, of "does this put them in more danger?” andagain, that depends. it depends on the facility. it depends on how rigorously they are tryingto implement the prea standards and the culture, and you don’t know that. so you have toask. you have to say, "do i have your permission? would you like me to contact someone at theprison and inquire about the status of your grievance or advocate for you to be housedmore safely or find out the status of the

investigation?” you may find out that it’salready being dealt with but no one has told the survivor. we hear that a lot. and so sometimeswe do hear "oh yeah, the investigation’s ongoing. it’s just not done yet.” butagain, make sure that you check in "is this something you want me to do? are you surethat you feel safe? and what is your safety plan if you experience any retaliation?” thanks, linda. someone wants to know moreabout black & pink, the organization. desiree, do you want to just talk a little bit moreabout them and what they provide? sure. so they are a boston-based organizationgroup. so they receive… they connect people who are incarcerated with people who are notincarcerated who identify as lgb, for the

folks who are incarcerated. and they alsoreceive free… they receive inmate artwork. and so it’s kind of a space to be like anoutlet for folks. and then also we hear from many survivors who hear about us through black& pink and oftentimes survivors want to connect with other survivors, and as a policy, wedon’t make that connection for them, but sometimes we refer people to black & pinksince they heard about us from there and it seems that a lot of people, that it’s avery safe venue for people to find folks that talk about… to find support. thanks, desiree. and just… we have so manygreat questions and just a few more minutes. linda or desiree, if you want to talk about…if you want to answer this, or linda. "does

jdi provide victim advocate services, specificallyemotional support, for agencies and offenders who have trouble finding advocacy groups toprovide emotional support to offenders? would it require an mou?” so jdi currently provides a written responseto survivors who write to us or to survivors and their loved ones who call us for support.we do that through sending written materials, survivor packet. we don’t have a hotlineor provide direct counseling services. we simply aren’t large enough, don’t havethe resources to do that at this time. and we do provide support and technical assistanceto rape crisis programs and other direct services agencies that are trying to provide theseservices, so we can do either remote technical

assistance via email or telephone calls andconferences, skype trainings. we can also do trainings remotely or if the agency hasthe ability to provide travel funds, we can pay for our time through this ovw projectand we can do in-person training. but we are always available to do technical assistanceand support to agencies that are trying to provide the support, and then any agency,any facility can provide our address as a way for survivors to reach out for supportas well. great. and then our last question. "wherecan we learn more about grievances to educate ourselves better?” or the grievance process,i think this person means. desiree, do you want to take that one?

sure. so the grievance process really differsfrom facility to facility, or like if you’re working with georgia docs; a georgia doc wouldhave a particular system. so if you have an mou or if you start working with an agency,when you go on your tour, you can ask about that, or you can just have an informal conversationwith the prea coordinator to ask a little bit more, because it would be helpful in youradvocacy. it’s also really helpful to talk about… the inmates understand the grievancesystem quite well and will let you know that, and so a lot of it sometimes is gleaning fromthe letters and from the phone calls and from the in-person meetings that you have. they’llexplain particular parts of the process. so putting all that information together, i think,is a great resource to find out more about

the grievance process system. and also a lotof agencies have some of the stuff posted online, so you can find it there as well. hi, everyone. sorry. i completely was offby the time, so we have a few more minutes for questions, if you want to submit any otherones. i am going to submit the address for you to write to, or for you to give to survivorsto write to. let’s see. here is another question. linda, if you want to take this."i am concerned about one of my clients. he said he’s being called names by officersbecause he’s gay. i’ve talked to my point person at the facility who didn’t thinkit was a problem. is there anything i can do?”

yeah, i mean so it sounds like… if you’regoing inside and talking to people, you have clients and you’ve talked to your pointperson, and i might… again, if you have a point person, i think, in facilities, thathierarchy of staying within the chain of command is always really important. so i would goback to that point person and say, "look, this is creating an unsafe environment forthis individual.” also if this is someone… i don’t know if this is someone who wasabused at the facility, but if this was someone who was abused at the facility and that’spart of why you’re providing services, then that could easily be seen as retaliation forhaving reported, which is in the prea standards it’s very clear that facilities have toprotect people who report, staff and inmates

alike, protect them from retaliation and monitorthem for retaliation. if this isn’t a case where the person was abused inside the facility,i think still it’s important to push that and say, again, "the prea standards requirethat staff be trained in effective and respectful communication with lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender, and intersex prisoners, and this behavior would be an example that they needadditional training.” and if you don’t get a respectful response, any kind of morepositive response from your point person, again, you have to judge how safe you feeldoing this, if this is going to get you kicked out of the facility for good. i would tryto find other allies, other staff members who agree that professional language is important,or let the person respectfully know that as

a rape crisis advocate, if that’s indeedhow you describe yourself, you understand that language is important and that a facilitywhere that kind of language is permissible is going to be a facility that’s less safe,and you feel really strongly that you need to talk with the head of the facility aboutthis. i am concerned that if you can’t work through… i think the best way is to tryto work with your point person to educate them about why it’s so important, and ifthey just can’t see it, then i would consider taking it to either the training departmentor their supervisor. thank you, linda. i think that’s reallyuseful. another person wrote. linda, if you want to take this, or desiree, if you haveany ideas, or anyone else. "both verbal and

physical fights between inmates are oftenfull of sexually abusive language. any perspectives on this?” yeah, i mean that’s a tough one, right?i mean i think that it’s really all about both in terms of what is sexual harassmentand what is sexual abuse, and in terms of the prea standards some of it is how it isperceived, right? i mean if people are hurling sexual or homophobic epithets in a physicalfight, it certainly does include… it does sort of raise the dynamic to being sexualabuse or sexual harassment potentially, and honestly, i think that what actually happenedin terms of if it is a criminal act or if it is sexual harassment in a specific caseis probably only something that can be determined

by a good, thorough, and objective investigation.again, the prea standards are quite clear that if there is contact that could be consideredsexual, let’s say of a hand to a genital area, that if that was incidental to anotheraltercation, then it’s not considered sexual abuse, but i would think that the use of sexualor homophobic language during that could shift how that is seen. again, i realize that’ssort of a general answer, but i feel like without looking at… every incident probablyneeds to be evaluated on its own. that’s exactly what i would have said. sohere’s another one. "clients who have been sexually assaulted before their incarcerationcan’t use prea services. what can they use?” linda?

well, prea services is sort of a… i knowthat that’s probably language that people have heard from corrections agencies and such,and prea actually requires that if someone discloses during their intake and screeningor at any other time that they have been sexually abused at any point in their life that theydo actually receive evaluation, a follow-up meeting with a mental health provider or medicalif it was recent. so it’s not entirely accurate to say that prea services aren’t availableto people. also prea requires that facilities make available a resource for emotional supportto all inmates, to a rape crisis center or other organization that provides emotionalsupport services for survivors of sexual assault, and that they do that through hotlines oraddresses that can be local, national, or

state. and so that resource specifically isindeed meant to be available to all prisoners. and so really, prea does lay out that servicesfor anyone who discloses that they were sexually abused in detention should be made available.and there could be a particular program that your facility has put into place that is onlyfor people who have been sexually abused, but that is actually that facility’s decisionand not a requirement of prea at all. so i would honestly advocate for that if thereare services available, and many times when we’ve worked directly with a rape crisisprogram this is what we’ve done, that because rape crisis programs provide services to allsurvivors of sexual assault, that programs that are offered inside the facility are goingto be offered to all survivors of sexual assault.

so that sounds like that may be a particulardecision that your facility has made and that is actually sort of independent of the preastandards and not required. i mean it’s not a required exclusion. thanks, linda. another question. "can yourecommend a particular symbol or picture that we could put on our brochure to indicate weare lgb safe and inclusive?” desiree, do you know of any or do you have any ideas? sure. there are a couple. you can go ontopretty much any lgbt…. or if you go into the advocacy organization that i had mentionedearlier, you can find many… oh, here it is. the national coalition for antiviolenceprojects, you can find some images there.

the pink triangle, a rainbow flag, those areall symbols that would be helpful. thank you. i think another question that’srelated to the one you just answered, linda, before desiree’s, "i have found protectionand monitoring of retaliation only happens if a report is founded. i understand thatthe standards require this monitoring for any report, regardless of founded or unfounded.is that accurate?” again, i think some of that might depend onhow the facility you’re working with is enacting the standards. so the standard readsthat the agency shall establish a policy to protect all inmates and staff who report sexualabuse or harassment or cooperate with sexual abuse or harassment investigations from retaliationsand shall designate staff members or departments

that are charged with monitoring them. theyare also supposed to monitor for at least 90 days. and what the standard then readsis an agency’s obligation to monitor shall terminate if the agency determines that theallegation is unfounded. so if it is founded or unsubstantiated, and the difference there,of course, is that unsubstantiated means that there was not evidence to either prove ordisprove it, and that could be for a whole variety of reasons. that could be becausethe report was made four weeks after it happened and evidence is missing, or that the investigatorsweren’t able to find enough witnesses to talk with them about it. and so that couldbe unsubstantiated. and that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, and so they’re absolutelystill supposed to monitor for retaliation

there. it’s only if it’s unfounded, whichmeans quite literally that it was proven not to have happened. so for example, someonereported that a staff member sexually abused them on october 5 and that staff member wasin hawaii from september 1 on and hasn’t come back yet. sort of that kind of levelof proof is meant to be unfounded. so yeah, i think you’re probably right that a lotof facilities maybe don’t see that they have the resources for every allegation orreally see founded, as meaning the ones that actually happened and not unsubstantiatedas the ones that could have happened. but because reporting in a facility is such arisky act, that even if it was unsubstantiated, the person who reports is still potentiallyseen as a snitch, is still potentially at

risk, and still does need to be monitoredfor retaliation. thank you. and this is actually a follow-upto the previous question about being told that prea services don’t apply to peoplewho were sexually abused before their incarceration. this same person said, "i’ve been told repeatedlythat prea is not for all prisoners. how do we educate the prison or jail?” i think that you… actually, they have toread the standards. i think that would be the only way, honestly. and if you give mejust a second, i can find the actual number and give it to you. can we ask another questionquickly and i’ll just flip to… i don’t have that number memorized, which i should,but i’ll get it quickly.

that’s okay. actually, i’ll just mentionabout we’re getting a couple questions about specifically working with transgender survivorswho are incarcerated. we actually have two upcoming webinars specifically on workingwith transgender people behind bars. in a couple slides, kamilah is going to give youthe information on that. we still don’t have registration available, but we’ll sendthat to you next week by email. and let’s see. and then someone else asked about servicesor any kind of resources specifically for incarcerated youth. we don’t actually knowof specifically services or resources that are specifically for youth, but if you wantany more follow-up information, if there’s anything we can do, please feel free to emailus at advocate@justdetention.org. and i think

linda is still looking for that. no, i’m good. oh, okay. i’ve got it. okay. i just needed to make sure i had the rightone before i started talking. so people can refer them to standard 115.53a, and i’lljust read it really briefly. the facility shall provide inmates with access to outsidevictim advocates for emotional support services related to sexual abuse by giving inmatesmailing addresses and telephone numbers, including

toll-free hotline numbers where available,of local, state, or national victim advocacy or rape crisis organizations. and for personsdetained solely for civil immigration purposes, they should get resources for immigrant serviceagencies. the facility shall enable reasonable communication between inmates and these organizationsand agencies in as confidential a manner as possible. and it goes on to say that the facilityshall inform inmates prior to making these services available the extent to which communicationwill be monitored, so they have to hear if it’s listened to, the extent to which reportsof abuse will be forwarded to authorities in accordance with mandated reporting laws.and then it goes on to say the agency shall maintain or attempt to enter into memorandaof understanding or other agreements with

community service providers that are ableto provide inmates with confidential emotional support services related to sexual abuse.so nowhere does it say that people who report are the only ones that are able to receiveservices. and then in medical and mental health care, i want to say 115.81, if a screeningpursuant to… if their medical and mental health screening or their initial screeningindicates that a prison inmate has experienced prior sexual victimization, whether it occurredin an institutional setting or in the community, staff shall insure that the inmate is offereda follow-up meeting with a medical and mental health practitioner within 14 days of thescreening. so it is very clear that some of these services are not specifically for peoplewho were only abused in the facility.

great. let’s see. i think we have one morequestion. "what do i do if my client is being targeted repeatedly by staff and inmates?how can i help get her transferred to another facility?” linda or desiree? so transfer to a facility, again, dependson kind of what institution that you’re at. and so you can talk to the facility’sprea coordinator and then somebody also might consider speaking with their housing and classifications.i think it’s also important to recognize that while you might want to do individualadvocacy, usually we recommend people to do self-advocacy, so for them to write or forthem to speak with their housing and classifications. depending if you want to take on that role,you can also write a letter of support for

that. but also, to keep it realistic, oftentimesthe facility may not take your recommendations to hold authority that many inmates expectfrom an outside organization. so just to manage expectations around it. and then if they’rein the state… so there is the unit classification or the facility that they’re at, and thenif they’re in the state system, there is usually a state level classification, so twoplaces that they can write to. great, thank you so much, desiree. so i thinkthat’s it. i may have missed a question here or there. if i did, feel free to emailus offline at advocate@justdetention.org. i’m going to turn it back to kamilah. thank you so much. so a lot of what we discussedtoday is included in jdi’s publication,

hope behind bars: an advocate’s guide forhelping survivors of sexual abuse behind bars. the guide is free and can also be found onthe advocate resources section of jdi’s website. we also certainly encourage you todownload the guide for future reference and to share it with your colleagues. again, ifyou have any questions or need technical support, you can always contact us at advocate@justdetention.organd we will get back to you within two business days. again, i also really recommend visitingthe advocate resources page on our website for more archived webinars on a variety oftopics. we also have a lot of fact sheets there and tools like sample mous. here isthe link, justdetention.org/advocate-resources. jdi also has a resource guide for survivorsof sexual abuse behind bars, which is a guide

that lists legal and counseling resourcesstate by state for survivors who are still incarcerated, for those who have been released,and also for loved ones on the outside who are searching for ways to help. if your agencyis interested in being listed in our resource guide, please fill out the form found at thelink on your screen. we’ll also include the link on a follow-up email, so you don’thave to worry about copying it down now. as carolina mentioned before, we’ll have atwo-webinar series on working with transgender survivors behind bars. these will be on november19th and december 10th. more information on these will also be emailed to you soon. thankyou so much again for joining us today. please take a moment to complete the evaluation andgive us your feedback. the link to the evaluation

is on the slide here and you’ll also getit in an email shortly. for additional information, again, here is our website, the advocate resourcespage, or you can also email us at that advocate@justdetention.org. and feel free to keep up with us on facebookand twitter as well. thanks again and have a great day.