NAPD Statement On DOJ PREA Memo

According to a recent internal memo from the US Department of Justice obtained by NPR on December 4 2025, the DOJ has instructed inspectors to cease evaluating prisons and jails on their compliance with standards created to protect transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming incarcerated people, in order to align with President Trump’s Executive Order on “gender ideology extremism.” Not only does the National Association for Public Defense strongly oppose this order, but we also condemn this catastrophic endangerment of LGBTQIA incarcerated people in the strongest possible terms and demand that the DOJ immediately resume enforcement of protection standards.