Minnesota

1. Policy: Minnesota Department of Corrections, Evaluation, Placement, and Treatment of Transgender/Intersex Offenders, November 2016 (Minnesota has a bifurcated system; state and county facilities are run separately).
2. Language:
   1. After one of the criteria in Procedure B is met, facility staff determines placement of the offender until the assistant commissioner-facility services determines placement.
   2. The facility health services unit completes a history and physical examination and, if applicable, a comprehensive psychological examination, including the offender’s view with respect to his/her own safety.  The health services staff does not search or physically examine a transgender, gender variant, or intersex offender for the sole purpose of determining the offender’s genital status.  
   3. If the offender’s genital status is unknown, it may be determined during conversations with the offender, by reviewing medical records or, if necessary, by learning that information as part of a broader medical examination conducted in private by a medical practitioner. If applicable, facility health services staff has the offender sign a release of information to obtain medical/mental health records when an offender:
      1.  Indicates a history of transgender or transsexual-related treatment; or
      2.  Identifies as, or is reported by staff to be gender-variant; or
      3. Has other clinical conditions in which gender assignment is unclear, such as cross dressing or physical features characteristic of a gender different from that assigned at birth.

“No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.”

Nelson Mandela