Senate committee hears bill to align jail search rules for transgender and intersex people with PREA

Senators on the Washington State Senate Human Services Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 5,490 on Feb. 4, a measure sponsored by Senator Manka Dhingra to require local jails to adopt search policies for transgender and intersex people that at minimum comply with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) as of Jan. 1 of this year.

The bill would require that a search of a transgender or intersex person be done in one of these ways: by the individual's chosen gender of staff; only by a medical professional; by female staff only when an adult is searched by female staff; or in accordance with the individual's stated gender identity. The draft also requires policies that enable people in custody to shower, perform bodily functions and change clothing without non‑medical staff of the opposite gender viewing them, with narrow exceptions for exigent circumstances or incidental viewing during routine cell checks. The bill explicitly states that a jail’s inability to make a female…