RISK FACTORS AND SITUATIONS suggested that before placing a transgender person in prison, his/her needs should be considered.43 Decisions regarding their placement and protection while in detention should be taken with their informed consent. The revised Standard Minimum Rules state (Rule 7(a)) that prison file management should enable the determination of the prisoners’ ‘unique identity, respecting his or her self-perceived gender’. This should be considered as a way to facilitate the placement of transgender detainees in facilities − male or female − of their choice. In 2011, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women described a case in El Salvador in which a transgender woman was placed in a male-only prison and detained in a cell with gang members, where she was raped more than 100 times, sometimes with the complicity of prison officials. 44 The Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture noted in its eighth Annual Report its concern that ‘the absence of appropriate means of identification, registration and detention leads in some cases to transgender women being placed in male-only prisons, where they are exposed to a high risk of rape, often with the complicity of prison personnel’.45 In March 2011, the Cook County Jail, in Illinois – one of the largest prisons in the USA – introduced a new policy for transgender detainees. A gender identity committee meets periodically to review plans for each transgender detainee, including the allocation of detainees with men or women.46 However, in the majority of countries, transgender detainees are automatically placed in facilities on the basis of their anatomical sex or sex assigned at birth. The unique vulnerability of transgender detainees was recently taken into consideration in a landmark ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court.47 In light of the fact that a transgender person sentenced to 15 months for robbery would have to be held in solitary confinement to protect him/ her from fellow prisoners, the Court reduced the sentence to 10 months, stating that the unusually harsh prison conditions constituted a mitigating factor. The verdict established a precedent for leniency due to particularly harsh prison conditions. 4. Body searches Body searches are a particularly sensitive issue for LGBTI persons, especially if the person arrested is openly lesbian, gay or bisexual, or if the person crossdresses or has undergone/is undergoing treatment for gender reassignment. Searches can magnify the risk of humiliation, abuse and discrimination as they may imply nudity and physical contact.Staff members in detention facilities should be trained to conduct searches and non-discrimination should be mainstreamed throughout the training. Even where no physical abuse or violence during body searches occurs, it is essential that monitors enquire into whether police attitudes and language are respectful, and detainees are not purposely humiliated. Explicit standards on (body) searches have been introduced, for the first time, in the revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Rules 50-52). They capture the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality, and the principle of ‘last resort’ for intrusive searches, including strip and body cavity searches, and encourage the development and use of appropriate alternatives. The Rules call for respect for the dignity and privacy of the individual searched, and provide that searches shall ‘not be used to harass, intimidate or unnecessarily intrude upon a prisoner’s privacy’. They also clarify that appropriate records of searches must be kept, for the purpose of accountability, and should include the reasons for the search, the identities of those who conduct it and the result of the search.48 Monitoring bodies should assess whether searches are conducted on a discriminatory basis (eg. LGBTI detainees being searched more often than other detainees) or whether the way in which they are conducted differs according to the person searched. Rule 51 of the revised Standard Minimum Rules relating to the record-keeping of searches, may prove particularly helpful in identifying discriminatory treatment. Detainees should never be asked to undress entirely and strip searches should be carried out in two steps (first clothes above the waist, then clothes below the waist). International standards recommend that searches are conducted by staff of the same gender.49 Although relevant for most prisoners, this standard is not necessarily protective for LGBTI detainees, as they may face abuse and humiliation when searched by staff of the same gender. LGBTI detainees who openly identify 43. Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, during a presentation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 23 October 2015 (157 Period of Sessions, Situación de derechos homanos de las personas LGBT privadas de libertad en América Latina). 44. See A/HRC/17/26/Add.2, paras.28-29. 45. Eighth annual report of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 26 March 2015, para. 68. 46. ‘For Transgender Detainees, a Jail Policy Offers Some Security’, New York Times, 22 December 2011. Available at: www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/us/ fortransgender-detainees-a-jail-policy-offers-some-security.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 <accessed 7 October 2013>. 47. See, for example, Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, Principle XXI; or the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the ‘Bangkok Rules’), Rule 19. 48. For more information, see PRI/APT factsheet, ‘Body Searches’ in Detention Monitoring Tool, 2nd edition, 2015. 49. See, for example, Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, Principle XXI; or the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the ‘Bangkok Rules’), Rule 19. Penal Reform International | LGBTI persons deprived of their liberty: a framework for preventive monitoring |9