The Insurgent Agency of Incarcerated Trans Women of Color

Abstract

How do trans women of color build lives in the context of carceral violence? The literature on transgender incarceration emphasizes violation but undertheorizes agency. Thus, while patterned victimization is well documented, we know far less about how incarcerated trans women of color understand their situation and struggle for safety and dignity. Drawing on semistructured interviews with thirty-two formerly incarcerated trans women, I answer this question by applying an intersectional, abolitionist feminist framework to the empirical study of trans women’s lives behind bars. The article begins by proposing a theory of violence that connects racially gendered interpersonal harm to the systemic harms of penal institutions. The immobilization and bodily dispossession inherent in imprisonment facilitates assaults by prison guards and other prisoners. The article then turns to the ways trans women of color employ embodied social and economic strategies to meet their needs behind bars, including the need for safety. By centering the insurgent practices of incarcerated trans women of color, this study provides new insights into prison life, the intersection of state and interpersonal violence, and possibilities for agency under radical constraint.